The Psychic
by Liahgeron
Summary: This is a fic I've been tinkering with for quite some time(note length). I think this is about the 1st third of what I want.


1 The Psychic  
  
Time Period: This story begins a year after Ash reappears from Silver Mountains(see end of Gold and Silver) after disappearing for several years. Misty broke up with her boyfriend(also see pokemon Gold/Silver, rumor, it may be someone else. I think the game is based on Pokemon Adventures, although) and rejoined Ash soon after making surgeon. Now to the story…  
  
…I surveyed the battlefield. Hundreds of mobile-doll Omega suits lay in pieces. I called up a systems check and cursed. I was out of ammo. 5 defense stars were destroyed the other 4 overloaded. My suit's teleporters and spacetime warping spheres were overheated and partially collapsed and melted on themselves. My Dimenise sword was cracked and flickering in and out of this dimension. 3 of 4 of my Dragon Teeth were shattered. One energy blade down the other was flickering. There were cracks and rifts all over the place in the armor. My main generator was down and my auxiliaries stretched. My Plasma "Firestorm" generators were slag as well as several arm and leg servo-motors. My force shield generator had been blasted into another dimension. My sensor array was all but gone. I sighed. I was lucky to have survived.  
  
"Beep!"  
  
My head snapped up toward the tactical display where an anomalous suit was shown. I switched to visual only to see a black suit. It struck me as similar to the Talgeese(not upgraded) but black. It's cannon was 4 barreled its square visor red. Its shield was stripped in silver with a central gold dome and the same size as the torso. It had a rocket launcher at its back. It drew a sword like FF7's Cloud's first sword that's edge glowed with focused energy. The air around it distorted as it sped towards me, a definite sign of force shields. I cursed, drawing and activating my last ditch weapon, the Nova Blade Prototype. It was double the length of a beam saber, black with a black, 6 pointed star hilt with a golden circle in the center, and its blade of bright, near-white, purple plasma formed with a squeeze of a trigger. It felt my body burn without shielding from the radiation as I caught my opponent's blade with my Nova Blade. I screamed…and woke up. In my bed, drenched in cold sweat. I stumbled over to the bathroom and threw up. I was the 3rd time this week I had had the nightmare. I groaned. Today I had a double shift, one under Nurse Joy, the other under Doctor Proctor plus the mysterious "analyzer" to get my surgical level medical badge without going to med-school. It had taken the influence of every Joy and Proctor to get this chance and I wasn't going to screw it up! And if I passed I could support my mother went I leave on my internship/residency by operating in the hospitals and centers along the way. I switched on the light and jerked slightly before remembering that my contacts weren't in, leaving my dark, near midnight blue but still definitely purple eyes, revealed. My pupils were impossible to see, giving the impression of twin voids. I usually wore brown-colored contacts so I didn't get stared at. I groaned again, realizing that the adrenaline from the shock wouldn't let me sleep. I switched on my desk light and got out my computer, started it, and called up the anatomy program to do some last minute study…  
  
Two days later…  
  
I woke in the cot set up in the hospital and yawned. I had spent the last a total of 16 hours in surgery with…I checked my watch… only 5 hours of sleep, and another 18 at the 'center alternating from the E.R. and O.R. with only 7 of sleep. The Analyzer was a real surprise, Misty Waterflower, girlfriend of Ash Ketchum the Pokemon Master, herself. Little did she know that Ash was the legendary "phantom" surgeon, who had taught me for a few months; although, I was sworn to secrecy by Joy and Proctor never to tell.  
  
"Chansey!" yelled the happy pokemon, interrupting my train of thought.  
  
A 'center messenger Chansey handed me a letter. I rubbed my eyes and looked at it. It was a phone message from my mother.  
  
"Chan?"  
  
"Huh? Oh."  
  
I gave it a quarter and it ran off. I opened the note, it read…  
  
"Hey Seaney! Come see me before you desert on your journey!"  
  
I groan and staggered into the bathroom to put on my contacts…  
  
At home…  
  
"Meowth!"  
  
"Hey, Tiggi! Mom home?" I said scratching her behind the ears.  
  
"Meow!" she said, nodding.  
  
I ran in, calling, "Mom! Where are you?"  
  
"In the basement!" She yelled back.  
  
I went down the stairs to see my mother searching the storage boxes.  
  
"Ah! Here it is!"  
  
She took out a cloth bundle.  
  
"Your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great…"  
  
"I get the point mom."  
  
"Okay. He forged this blade and it's been handed down to the first born child when he or she left on their journey."  
  
She unwrapped the bundle, revealing a sheathed katana just over 4ft. in length. She handed it to me. When I touched it, I felt a feeling of right, that I was meant to have the sword. It glowed slightly. My mother smiled, as if it was familiar. I hugged her and ran upstairs. First I changed from O.R. scrubs into my travelling clothes (Black tank-top and running pants and a well-worn "psychic eye" cap). I gathered my pack containing 5 changes of clothes, water purifying tablets, a water bottle, 50 meal bars, 15 instant noodle packs, 10 hot dogs in freezer package, a pot and stand, ice maker, a small refrigerator (empty), wash-up kit (soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc.), drink mixes for Pepsi and Gatorade, various items for my contacts, my spare glasses, matches, vitamin pills, a dozen brand-new novels, a lighter, a towel, swimming trunks, and 10, 000 in cash in my wallet (Thank Sliph co. for item balls!). Swung the sword sheath onto my back by its carrying rope. And put my computer into its pouch(note: the computer is pokedex sized but twice as thick with over a 1000 fold more memory and processor speed than the pokedex, not to mention every commercial computer available!) at my waist on my left side. And slid my wallet into my right pocket. Finally, I lifted the sword by its carry-rope and positioned to be drawn by my right hand. Prepared, I headed down the stairs, then slapped my forehead as I was about to leave, remembering what I had forgotten.  
  
"Dangit! I forgot my shocrum at the 'center!"  
  
I ran top speed toward the 'center, running into Joy as I entered.  
  
"Speak of the Houndoom! Sean! I was just going to get you!"  
  
"I know, I for got my shocrum."  
  
"That, and this."  
  
Joy handed me a white box the size of a briefcase with a red-cross on the side.  
  
"Open it."  
  
I did and saw a full surgical instrument set in a sterilizer, 25 pairs of sterile surgical gloves sealed in their paper and plastic envelops, 10 kinetically compacted sterile surgical gowns, 20 sterile masks, a mini- monitor and scanner, a small opening med-cabinet with human/pokemon drugs (potions that are slightly weaker on pokemon but can also work somewhat on humans), a respirator and gaseous general anesthetic tank, a sterile field generator (sterilizes and keeps sterilized an area of up to 5 feet radius), a item storage unit with an operating room inside, a second item storage unit for specialized instruments, for other instruments, and a small second- generation fission/fusion generator(takes in matter and uses a expanding and contracting envelope in space-time to cause the material to fission, then fuse until all of it is energy) for power(unfortunately this method lost effectiveness at higher levels). I blinked in surprise.  
  
"Look familiar, Sean?"  
  
"You built it!"  
  
"Yep! It's now required on all Journeyman surgeons. You get the first model for free!"  
  
"I don't know what to say. But thanks!"  
  
"Yeah. Here's your ring."  
  
She handed me a foot-diameter, silver-bladed ring with an outline of a gold yin-yang grip inside a silver ring with 24 Japanese symbols engraved and inlaid on both sides. The symbols were normal, fire, water, electric, grass, ice, fighting, poison, ground, flying, psychic, bug, rock, ghost, dragon, steel, dark, nuclear, sonic, light, shadow, dusk, power, and life. Each symbol was inlaid with an appropriate stone and was right above and across its opposite symbols on both sides.  
  
"Thanks!"  
  
"How do you use that thing?"  
  
"I imagine a path and the damage it will do."  
  
"I still don't get it. Call when you see my sisters, alright?"  
  
"Sure! See ya'!"  
  
Nurse Joy left, and I packed my stuff and headed off after compacting the kit into an item ball. I decided to get used to the sword as I walked. What surprised me that it seemed to have no weight at all! I began to practice swings as I walked. I saw a tree and decided to see how well it cut. I dropped my stuff and ran at top speed toward the tree and performed a half- spin in mid-air, leaping, intending to make a shallow cut along the tree's trunk, but, to my surprise, I cut through the entire tree, an act that threw me off balance. I tripped and felt the blade fly from my grip and into the air as the tree fell behind me. I shut my eyes, expecting to feel the blade impale me. Instead it stopped as if it hit a wall a fraction on a cm above my chest and deflected off!  
  
"What!?!"  
  
I nervously got up and stumbled over to the sword and tried to lightly cut my finger, again the blade stopped less than a tenth of a mm from the edge as if it had encountered surface too hard for it to cut.  
  
"Woah. It's like my shocrum !" I said momentarily remembering that I could control the cut, and forgetting that such a blade couldn't possibly exist. I smiled and continued my journey to Pallet town. I also continued to practice, getting used to the blade. The rest of the day was generally uneventful, except for one thing. I was winding down my blade practice when a girl, about my age appeared, right in the path of my blade! I willed it to stop, and it did about an inch from her.  
  
She scolded, "Watch where you swing that thing, serf!"  
  
I frowned, "I would if you watched where you materialized!"  
  
After briefly looking around, she growled at me, "I can't help it if the fact that I have an affinity for Dark types aggravates my dad's Alakazam!"  
  
I measured her up. She was slightly shorter than I was and Oriental rather than my Asian/Caucasian mix. She had shoulder-length raven black hair hanging straight. Her face would've been pretty if her face wasn't wearing a superior brat expression. She wore black robes that reminded me of a legendary mage.  
  
"Look, I'm sorry. I admit I should have recognized the signs of teleportation, but you should train that Alakazam better."  
  
"Why you--!" She couldn't finish since she disappeared.  
  
"Her father acts quick."  
  
I shrugged and started off again toward Pallet…  
  
The next day…  
  
I made good time, over 20 mi. a day, and reached pallet in 6 days, a day early to get my pokemon. I headed for the lab of Prof. Oak, the 2nd largest building. Mrs. Ketchum's being the largest since she was the mother of the current and first tri-league champ. On arrival, I was greeted by a Kingler.  
  
"Gouki?"  
  
"Hello. Is Prof. Oak home? I'm one of the new trainers that he's sponsoring."  
  
The Kingler nods and leads me in. Inside there was an old man tinkering with a pokeball.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
The old man, who I assumed to be Oak, jumped!  
  
"Who? What? Where? When?"  
  
"Whoa. I'm Sean Curran."  
  
"Who?…Oh! You're one of the new trainers I'm sponsoring! You're a day early!"  
  
"I made better time than I thought I would."  
  
"Oh well. I guess you can take the guest room. Kingler will show you the way."  
  
"Wait. Have you gotten a package for me?"  
  
"A package?"  
  
"Gouki!"  
  
The Kingler hits its head, stumbles, regains its senses, and left the room. It returned a minute later with a thin package that it handed to me. I tore into it. Inside were a golden glove and scalpel with a case on them and two diplomas under them. He opened the case to reveal two badges, one was a gold cross and the other a gold Hypocrite's staff. Both had a tiny scalpel engraved on the only vertical line in both patterns. I whooped for joy(pun intended) and did a backflip!  
  
"I did it! Yes!"  
  
Prof. Oak smiled.  
  
"So you're the other one."  
  
"I guess," assuming he was talking about Ash.  
  
"Oh well. You've had a long day. Follow Kingler."  
  
"'Night, Prof. Oak."  
  
"Goodnight."  
  
"And your soldering iron isn't plugged in."  
  
The Prof. sweatdropped as I left, apparently realizing that all the "work" he had been doing never actually had any effect. As soon as I reached the guestroom, I collapsed into the bed and immediately fell asleep.  
  
The next morning…  
  
I awoke with a pain in my chest. I found it hard to breathe, as if a weight was on my chest…Wait a sec! I do have a weight on my chest! I opened my eyes and saw a small pokemon on my chest! I jumped into full reaction knocking the small pokemon off, waking it up! Both of us flipped in midair, landing in identical fighting positions. We stared at each other and he twitched. I reacted with my own Light Dragonfist style. To my total surprise the pokemon, which I identified as Abra, performed the exact counter! I was so startled it was able to strike back with my own Light Dragonfist style, knocking me back.  
  
"That's it! SHIN FORM!"  
  
I let my rage roar through me and used it to focus, heightening my speed, strength, reaction time, and senses several fold(Note: this is also the basis for my Shadow Dragonfist style, this will be important much later). I smashed the abra into the wall with a kick, following up with a punch that…hit the wall!?! I cradled my fist. The wall was slightly more injured with a hole through it.  
  
"Damn, teleport. That pokemon seems to read my mind! That's the exact way I would've used teleport! But abra can only sense a presence, not thoughts!"  
  
I hear a whoosh and receive a kick on the back. I turn and flip the abra through the hole. I follow through with a jump kick while it was still flying. It 'ported before it hit and used the momentum to place a nerve grip on me! I grunted in anger at the cheap shot(Although, I would've done the exact same thing in the abra's situation).  
  
"Why you!"  
  
I grabbed, flipped, and slammed it. However, I hurt my elbow on the floor when while following through with and elbow strike, it 'ported. I focused, drawing power from my pain. There! A whoosh of air! I spun and triple kicked it into a wall and struck the wall with a piston kick! However, I missed and broke through the wall, right in to Prof. Oak's bedroom!  
  
"What the!?!?!"  
  
"Shhhhhhhh. There's a pokemon lose."  
  
I heard the woosh. I performed a triple spin kick followed by a jumping knee, pinning the abra to the wall. I pressed a nerve on its neck to stop it from teleporting.  
  
"Here it is."  
  
"Abra!?! How'd you get out! Where did you find him! He was supposed to be a starter pokemon this year!"  
  
"Whoah, man. Calm down. I found this guy on my chest when I woke up. By the way, how'd you teach him my Dragonfist style?"  
  
"Dragonwhatitis? I never taught him to fight. He was in that ball for awhile, though."  
  
"Strange," I turned to address the pinned pokemon. "Are you gonna' to stop fighting?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
I blinked, "Huh?"  
  
"Well? You going to unpin me?"  
  
"Yeah, sure."  
  
"Thanks. Sorry for attacking you, waking up on your chest freaked me out."  
  
"Me too."  
  
"Can you understand Abra-speech?"  
  
"No, Prof. Oak."  
  
"Then how are you understanding him?"  
  
"Isn't he speaking English?"  
  
"Nope. I couldn't understand a word he said."  
  
I blinked again and turned to stare at Abra, who stared back. There was a loud silence. Oak broke it.  
  
"I guess we just found who gets abra," he said with an odd tone of amusement in his voice, as if he knew something we didn't. Abra and I continued to stare at each other until abra said something.  
  
"I guess we're stuck with each other, huh Sean."  
  
"Guess so. At least you're a good sparring partner."  
  
"Yeah, but next time, let's spar outside?"  
  
I looked at the damage we had done and nodded.  
  
"Leave it. It'll just get more damaged later."  
  
"You rebuild the house every day!?!"  
  
"Gouki gouki," said Kingler who was wheeling a wheelbarrow full debris outside.  
  
"He said, 'No, I do.'"  
  
"Thanks abra."  
  
3 hours later…  
  
Abra and I were discussing how to use teleportation in Dragonfist and other anatomic points to strike at(it turns out that Abra had all my surgical knowledge as well) when the other new trainers arrived. There were 2 of them. The first was Joseph Oak, Gary Oak's cousin. Then came Sarah Slate, the youngest sister of the famous breeder, Brock Slate. Prof. Oak called everyone to his lab.  
  
"Welcome all you budding trainers!"  
  
"Prof. Oak? You don't have to shout. We're right here," said Sarah, cringing at the volume with the rest of us.  
  
"Since there are only 3 trainers this year, I'm going to offer a wide selection of pokemon. As you can see Abra has already been taken," Oak continued, not bothering to lower his voice.  
  
"Why did he get first choice!?! How could you! I'm your great nephew!" whined Joseph.  
  
"What a brat."  
  
"You said it, Abra."  
  
"What did he say!?!"  
  
"Calm down, Joseph. I'll let you have second pick." Said Sarah.  
  
"Yes!" Joseph proudly walked to the table with 9 pokeballs on it.  
  
I whispered to Sarah, "Thanks. He was getting on my nerves."  
  
"Now. You can choose from the 3 usual pokemon plus eevee, gastly, nidoran male, shellder, mankey, and diglett."  
  
"I choose Eevee!" Joseph eagerly grabbed the pokeball. Sarah shook her head and took the ball containing Gastly.  
  
"Hmph!"  
  
"Be quiet Abra. I know you can beat them."  
  
"Wanta bet? I bet eevee can whup your puny abra!"  
  
Abra growled at the insult.  
  
"Why not."  
  
"Go! Eevee!"  
  
The brown furry pokemon formed out of red light.  
  
"Abra, bring honor to our name."  
  
Abra 'ported to the floor. Prof. Oak shook his head.  
  
"Eevee! Tackle!"  
  
Abra watched Eevee dash at him, then he used a flip to increase the furry pokemon's momentum and send it flying into the wall, it slid down, out cold.  
  
"You cheated!"  
  
I leaped at him, drawing my sword. I stopped my slash a tenth on an inch from his face!  
  
"Never insult my honor. Take back your comment."  
  
"Not likely! You can't do anything to me!"  
  
I slashed his cheek. I wasn't deep, but it got the point across. He quickly apologized and ran away sobbing, stopping only to return Eevee. Sarah laughed.  
  
"You showed him!"  
  
"You said it," said Abra.  
  
"He deserved it, but next time keep the physical damage down."  
  
"It's okay, Prof. Oak. I gave him the equivalent of a paper cut, he'll be fine."  
  
"Okay, here's your pokedexes. I'll forward the third to Joe later."  
  
Sarah accepted hers, but I shook my head and raised my hand in polite refusal.  
  
"No need," I said, tapping my computer at my waist. "I programmed everything I need into this."  
  
"Okay. Sarah do you need help setting yours up?"  
  
"Nope. No insult to you, Prof., but your great-nephew's a brat."  
  
Oak sighed, "I know. It's an Oak failing. We all are arrogant on our journeys and do anything to win, but we all lose sometime. Generally, after we complete our journey, we become friends with our pokemon, not just their trainer. Gary learned that lesson from Ash. Maybe you two will teach Joseph."  
  
"Yeah. But first I gotta go catch up to him. Besides Gastly and I have a name to make!"  
  
Sarah skipped out. Abra and I chuckled.  
  
"'Bye Oak!"  
  
"Good luck!"  
  
Abra and I left. We had an uneventful journey to Viridian. We headed straight to the 'center.  
  
"Why are we at the center, Sean?"  
  
"I gotta' make some money to support myself and mom. I have a surgical license now and can work for pay."  
  
"Can I help?"  
  
I gave Abra a quizzical look, "Well, for some reason you have all the skill that I do in fighting, so why not in surgery?"  
  
1 week later…  
  
"Sean! Abra! Get over here fast!"  
  
Abra 'ported us next to Joy.  
  
"I need help with this patient."  
  
The patient was a badly beaten Dratini. There were tell-tale burns from hyper beam attacks.  
  
"Joy, this pokemon was pummeled by hyper beams!"  
  
"I know! It needs surgery fast!"  
  
Together we wheeled Dratini into the OR and prepared for surgery…  
  
7 hours later…  
  
"Phew. That's the last stitch," said Abra.  
  
"I'm done."  
  
"Me too."  
  
I pulled off my gown and gloves, as did Joy and Abra. An O.R. Chansey wheeled the Dratini into post-op while we went to the lounge to get a nap after the long surgery(the wounds weren't too severe, but there were just so many of them). But before we could get there, a loud-mouthed trainer stopped us. He wore a gaudy silver robe with a dragon stitched on its back.  
  
"WHERE IS THAT DRATINI!?!" he demanded.  
  
"Whoah, you mean that—"  
  
"Shut up peasant! I was addressing Nurse Joy."  
  
"You shut up!" Abra yelled back, kicking the guy in the shin. The trainer hopped up and own in pain, then stood, angered, and fired a hyper beam at me!?!  
  
"What the?" I yelled.  
  
I felt the blow and flew back. The wall stopped me.  
  
"Now I get it. You're the one that was trying to kill that Dratini," I croaked, my ribs felt broken, and I wheezed with each birth.  
  
The trainer smiled, "For a peasant, you're smart. I am Draco! The dragon Adept!" He yelled, punctuating it with another hyper beam! I felt the wall crumble as I lost consciousness…or did I?  
  
Abra  
  
"Sean!" I screamed.  
  
"Tell me where that dratini is or he dies," said Draco, pointing his left hand at Sean!  
  
I roared and leaped at him, striking with I could. He just laughed and knocked me away with what looked to be a mega punch.  
  
"Fight these guys."  
  
He released a pair of Dragonites!  
  
"Holy !&#$!" I screamed.  
  
Joy had fainted from the sight of the two pokemon. I grunted and attacked anew, using Shadow dragonfist techniques, my rage of his hurting Sean powered me, but the dragonites just laughed because they were more than 50 levels higher! They blasted me away. I saw a sword-wielding blur, Sean! His sword was glowing a light, icey blue! As he shot past the dragonites, he swirled his sword in a horizontal figure-8 about him. The dragonites screeched as they slowly froze solid after the sword had passed through them, and Sean had landed on their far side!  
  
"What the!?!" screamed the trainer! Sean turned to him, his eyes glowing in a rainbow of colors.  
  
"An Adept? Of course, that explains it. But you are weak and untrained. SO DIE! DRAGON RAGE!"  
  
The trainer thrust his right hand up and a tornado of water formed and headed for Sean!  
  
"NO!" I screamed, leaping to protect him, only to be stopped by a barrier! A barrier that could and did absorb the blow!  
  
"IMPOSSIBLE!!!"  
  
"Shadow Strike," whispered Sean in a voice not his own, tossing the shocrum he carried, but now it was glowing black! It struck with a flash of darkness that sent the adept, which I assumed he was, flying.  
  
He reached for an amulet on his now bear chest saying, "Master, save me…" and with that, he disappeared with his pokemon in a flash, teleport. Sean turned and spoke with a voice not his own…  
  
"Tell him nothing of this. He will wake in 4 hours," spoke the voice, then Sean collapsed.  
  
"Sean!" I screamed, and I quickly 'ported next to him to feel his pulse.  
  
"How is he, Abra?" said Joy having regained consciousness moments before.  
  
"Fine, just asleep. But what happened?"  
  
"I haven't a clue. But just in case, let's heed that warning."  
  
I nodded and 'ported my beloved trainer to a bed.  
  
Sean  
  
I woke to see Abra asleep on my chest. I weakly nudged him awake. He woke with a start, looked up, and hugged me.  
  
"I thought you were a gonner."  
  
"Good to see you too Abra, what happened?"  
  
"Well, after he blasted you I managed to hit him hard and Joy released a few ice types that beat him, but someone teleported him away."  
  
"Good riddance. How much longer until I can go?"  
  
"As soon as you get ready. Joy brought you the stuff from the pokemart. Here."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
I looked into the package that I had bought with about a third of my salary, 1 half went to mom, and the remainder to my savings. I now had about 15,000 pokeyen in my wallet. The package contained several TM's and healing potions. I took out the punch TM's and showed them to Abra.  
  
"You want to learn these. We can incorporate them into Dragonfist. Here are the Ice, Fire, and Thunder Punch TM's. They cost a fortune even with a doc discount."  
  
"I think they'll be good additions to my repertoire."  
  
He tapped the activation button on each TM. The TM's glowed and crumbled. The TM's worked by psychic input into a pokemon, but the metaphysical energy caused them to disintegrate. Simpler moves in HM's used less power, so could be re-used. Abra 'ported to the floor and demonstrated the new techniques, unfortunately, he also demonstrated the effectiveness of the fire alarm.  
  
"Oops," was his only explanation for igniting the flowers next to my bed. I just laughed as water poured down on me. It was good to be alive, but what had happened? I could somehow feel that Abra hadn't told the truth, but why? And better yet, how did I know that???  
  
The next day(We left after saying goodbye to Dratini, who said that he'd meet up with me later, a phrase which again I could understand for no apparent reason)…  
  
I breathed in the clean air of the forest, enjoying the smells.  
  
"Hey Abra, can you sense any pokemon?"  
  
Abra shook his head.  
  
"Darn. It's like something's warning them off."  
  
A bush rustled.  
  
"Abra! Hi Jump Kick!"  
  
Abra leaped into the bush and kicked some thing inside, out. It was a caterpie. Abra was about to follow through with an ice punch, but he was sent flying by an invisible force!  
  
"Telekinesis," I hissed. The Caterpie turned toward me and nodded.  
  
"You are correct."  
  
Needless to say I fell over in shock, groaning, "Not another one."  
  
"Another what?" Called a beaten Abra that was walking toward my side.  
  
"Another pokemon that I can understand for no apparent reason."  
  
"You can understand me?" inquired the diminutive bug.  
  
"I can understand you, but I can't understand any other pokemon but Abra and a Dratini that I met."  
  
The bug thought for a little and replied in what seemed to be a shocked tone, "You don't consider me a freak?"  
  
"No, why should we?" said Abra.  
  
"I agree. Why should we?"  
  
"I can use psychic powers, so my colony rejected me," Caterpie sadly replied.  
  
I stooped down and picked the pokemon up and cuddled it saying, "I would never consider anyone a freak. I just consider that to be an unusual knack."  
  
Caterpie looked up to me from my arms into my eyes, earnestly asking, "Would you be my trainer? I don't think I could ask for better. This feels right."  
  
I smiled and offered a pokeball, she tapped the button and was sucked in. Another friend had joined me, a girl—How the hell did I know that!?!  
  
Hours later…  
  
To our surprise the deeper part of the forest was totally devoid of trainers. I had released Caterpie, and she and Abra were walking at my feet.  
  
"There used to be a lot of trainers here, but the forest is too thick now for trainers to stay here," said Caterpie, seemingly reading my thoughts, which were along the same lines.  
  
"Hey, Caterpie. Do you know of a pokemon gym here?"  
  
"A gym?"  
  
"You know, a big human building where human battle their pokemon?" replied Abra.  
  
Caterpie thought for a moment, "Yeah…I think there's one of those here. My parents said not to go there, but since I have a trainer now, I guess I can show you. Follow me!"  
  
Caterpie took off, but Abra and I managed to keep up. Soon we reached a clearing. Inside the clearing was a large building that looked like a beehive.  
  
"This is a gym!?!" I asked incredulously.  
  
"Yep!" called a figure in samurai armor that was leaping out of the bushes…with a sword!?! In an instant, I had drawn my sword and turned to face the attacker. I swung my sword, only to have it slice through the blade! I reversed my slash, turning to the flat edge, and knocked the figure out of the air. I slowly placed the sword's tip at the man's throat. Total time, 1.7 seconds.  
  
"Impressive. I has been a long time since I have been defeated," said the figure, who seemed to be a man in his mid- to late-twenties. "I am the Samurai."  
  
I retracted my sword, sheathed it, and extended my hand. He took it and rose to his feet.  
  
"If I hadn't defeated you, my friends would've," I said indicating Abra, who was in a fighting stance, and Caterpie, who was showing signs of intense concentration.  
  
"Hmmmmmmm. You seem to have a good point. I assume you are here to challenge me?"  
  
I smiled, "You're correct. And you two, calm down. Save it for the match."  
  
"Oh, all right."  
  
"And I was so ready for a battle to."  
  
"Shudap' bug."  
  
"You're just jealous that I can already use my psychic powers, so nyah," mocked Caterpie.  
  
Abra's eyes turned red as he seemed to grow.  
  
"Abra! Stop!" I yelled with all the authority I could muster. My voice seemed to snap him out of it. Abra turned and stiffly walked toward the door.  
  
"Nya—"  
  
"Caterpie! Cut it! Abra my not be able to use psychic powers, but he is far your superior in fighting! Everyone has strengths and weaknesses! Get that through your head!"  
  
Caterpie flinched back at my tone. I changed to a more apologetic one and continued, "Sorry Caterpie, I just don't like to see people, or pokemon, ridicule and/or persecute others. Especially, ones I know. I apologize for my tone, but could you be less hard on Abra?"  
  
"Oh all right," Caterpie replied and ran to catch up with Abra.  
  
"You are a strange trainer, Sean. One might think you were a pokemon yourself. Shall we go?" said Samurai who had picked up the pieces of his sword.  
  
I followed him into the gym. Inside, I climbed up onto the battle platform, glad to see that Caterpie and Abra seemed to have made up. Soon Samurai had reached and climbed up his platform. I issued a challenge, "I, Sean Curran, of…ah, now that I realize it, my town was never named."  
  
Abra, Caterpie, and Samurai stared at me.  
  
"What? We are still only officially a trading post. We won't reach a permanent population large enough to qualify for town status for at least another year," I explained, a large sweat drop had gathered on the back of my head as the others stared at me. I chuckled nervously. Samurai decided to break the embarrassed silenced by stating the rules, "3-on-3! No time limit! Begin! Go! Butterfree!"  
  
"Take 'im Abra!"  
  
"You got it!"  
  
He 'ported to the area floor, which was dotted with tree stumps.  
  
"Buterfree! Psybeam!"  
  
Psybeam! Sh*t! That means it is over level 30, not good! Can brains be beaten by brawn? I thought.  
  
"Abra! Use your own discretion!"  
  
"Got it!" he replied.  
  
Abra started to teleport around the area, disorienting the powerful butterfree. He soon started to have guerilla strikes with his Ice Fist(A powered-up version of Ice punch that is created using extreme concentration to lower the temperature to near -100(C and also uses the physical strength of the user, discovered jointly by Abra and I as we traveled through Viridian Forest, again showing our close similarity of thought). Soon, Butterfree crashed to the ground, his wings frozen.  
  
"Your Butterfree is unable to battle, call it back!"  
  
"Return! Go! Pinsir! Rapid fire Guillotine!"  
  
"Sh*t," cursed Abra and I simultaneously.  
  
"Abra! Dodge!"  
  
Abra dodged many Guillotines, but was hit by a glancing blow. My ankle ached in something more than sympathy. Abra leaped into full Shin form!  
  
"THAT'S IT! RAIDEN'S PUNCH!"  
  
Abra broke from the pincirs and leapt at pinsir and struck with a fist encased in seemingly smooth electricity at its face! The thunderclap was amazingly loud in the enclosed space of the arena, and the flash was bright enough to blind! With my eyesight returned, I saw Pinsir blackened and out cold fallen near a half-conscious Abra. I couldn't blame him, I was also feeling a bit faint.  
  
"Abra you'd better return," I said returning him to his much hated 'ball, but he was too weak to fight. "Caterpie, you up for it?"  
  
"You ain't seen nothing yet!" she yelled, flipping off the platform and to the ground.  
  
"Unfortunately, your cute Caterpie won't stand a chance vs., Beedrill! Go!"  
  
"WHO YOU CALLIN' CUTE! TELEKINETIC TOSS!"  
  
The area around Beedrill glowed the same white hue as Caterpie and was sent flying into the wall! Caterpie continued to 'kinetically slam beedrill into the wall, very hard.  
  
"Caterpie! Enough! Besides, I thought girls like being called cute," she turned to glare at me after slamming Beedrill once more for good measure, and letting him drop…all 20 feet to the ground. Noting the fate of the last victim, I wisely and meekly stated, "I get the point."  
  
Needless to say, Samurai's Beedrill didn't get up.  
  
"Return! Amazing! I've never seen a psychic bug! You are an amazing trainer, worthy of the Nature Badge!"  
  
"Yah! I won!…Huh?" yelled Caterpie who soon began to evolve! The glow ended, "I. Am. Metapod!"  
  
I rolled my eyes, "Don't be so melodramatic."  
  
Abra chuckled in his 'ball.  
  
"Amazing. Here take this as well."  
  
Samurai walked over to me and handed me a badge in the shape of a beehive and an unfamiliar TM. Metapod, who was a much lighter green than the norm, floated over via TK to check it out. I hugged him tightly, released Abra, and hugged him also but more gently. I noticed for the first time that both of my pokemon were whiter than their species normal but something in my mind pushed the info away as unimportant. Then I pinned the badge, which was shaped like a tree with small pictures of every bug-type scattered on it, on my sword's black carry-rope; placed the amount of cash we had just one in my wallet, and checked out the TM.  
  
"I've never seen this make of TM before."  
  
"If you had I would be surprised. It is an exclusive TM to this gym, Mega Horn. The Ultimate bug attack."  
  
"Well, an ultimate bug gets her type's ultimate attack, right Sean?"  
  
I laughed and handed her the TM, which she instantly activated. The TM crumbled to dust which Samurai swept up.  
  
"There's a healing machine over near the door. You may use it."  
  
"Got it. Into the ball you two."  
  
Metapod got in but Abra… "Huh? No way! I will not go back into that claustrophobic ball! It was bad enough the first time!"  
  
I sighed, took out a full restore that I had bought, and sprayed it on him. Samurai smiled and took Metapod's ball to the healing device and activated it.  
  
"You're a great trainer. You're only the 3rd to defeat me in the last few weeks."  
  
"Who were the others?"  
  
"Well, first was a bratty boy that challenged me with his Eevee. He won but barely. The next was a strange girl. She trained Dark types but beat me with a Sneasal(note to those without Gold or Silver: Dark/Ice type, looks like a cat with long silver claws and a black coat and 3 blue icicle tails) and a Umbeon(dark evolution of Eevee). She was good and seemed to have trained with them for awhile. Next was one of the Slate siblings. Her Haunter slaughtered my pokemon. But she was only here this morning. The Dark-type trainer was her 4 days before her, so I assume that the Slate had trained with at the trainer's center in Viridian for a bit."  
  
"Thanks for telling me."  
  
"You're welcome. Here's your metapod."  
  
He tossed Metapod's ball to me and I opened it. Abra got to his feet, fully healed. I bade Samurai goodbye, and my friends and I left toward Pewter.  
  
The next day…  
  
"Finally! We're outta' there!"  
  
"Yeah, goodbye, forest, I'll be back."  
  
"Come on you two we got to get to the 'center and sign in."  
  
"Sign in?"  
  
"Between travels, we work as surgeons in the 'centers."  
  
"You mean that this knowledge came from you two???"  
  
Abra and I snapped our gazes toward Metapod.  
  
"What? What did I do?"  
  
I slapped my head and groaned while Abra broke down into hysterical, but stressed laughter.  
  
"Sean? You okay?"  
  
"*groan* Yeah. Just that it's happened again."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Sean *gasp* is a skilled surgeon. I *gasp* learned his knowledge when *gasp* I first encountered him. *gasp* This is getting to be a pattern.—" from there Abra degraded into fits of hysterical laughter.  
  
"Well, I guess I'm stuck with you too, huh?"  
  
"Yep! I wouldn't have it any other way!"  
  
I laughed at my two highly unusual pokemon and we continued to the 'center…  
  
A week later…  
  
The week passed without incident. Abra and I worked exclusively in the O.R. while metapod, being unable to handle surgical instruments except by TK, which takes enough concentration to do alone, worked in the E.R. We managed to get a salary that would last my mother and Tiggi for at least a couple months and, since I had enough money to last for awhile, I sent it in full to her. During breaks, Abra, Metapod, and I perfected an Elemental variation on Dragonfist. I started to develop a Dragonwing and Dragonmind attack styles for their later evolutions(In mind and computer only). I also worked on several test styles of my own. Dragonclaw was the first, it was a Dragonfist style variation for weapons. Next was a mixed style that I had been developing but was put off by the flash of insight that created the Dragonfist. I called the style Fusion. It mixed numerous styles and worked best with several users. Abra and I tried the style several times but a mysterious feeling jolted us out of it. Metapod claimed it was a psychic bond, but I think she was blowing hot air. My computer is working better than ever with the new enhancements our trio invented and now stored all the moves and theories of our styles. On our last day, I headed for the gym.  
  
At the gym…  
  
"Monolithic, isn't it?" said metapod, referring to the massive stone gym.  
  
"Yep. Abra will you do the honors?"  
  
"Of course!"  
  
Abra Double Kicked the doors open.  
  
"I am Sean Curran! I challenge the leader here!" I called into the bleak darkness inside the cavernous gym.  
  
A light switched on in the dark gloom of shadows in the gym. The light revealed a man in his early fifties sitting in a plain basalt throne at the opposite end of the gym.  
  
"I am Flint. I accept your challenge."  
  
"Ah? Sir? Forgive for asking, but I thought Brock led this gym," I asked.  
  
"A few weeks ago, he was married to Suzie of Scissor street. They just left on their honeymoon."  
  
"You think you'd know that if you were here for a week. You did treat some of the pokemon who fought here, Sean," taunted Abra.  
  
"That's it. 4 more hours of training."  
  
"Ha!" laughed Metapod.  
  
"For the both of you."  
  
My pokemon groaned.  
  
"Unless of course you make up."  
  
"Sorry," said Metapod to Abra.  
  
"Sorry," said Abra to me.  
  
"Good. Now, the match?"  
  
Flint smiled at our conversation and flicked a switch on the right arm of his throne. The switch apparently turned on the arena lights, revealing a rocky field.  
  
"1st, 2nd, or 3rd class?" he called.  
  
"What???" I replied, dumbly.  
  
"Ahhhhh. I take it you've never had a multi-league-represented-gym match before."  
  
"Yep! He's a beginner."  
  
I kicked Abra and quietly said, "You're too like me for your own good. Be quiet and let me do the talking. One of me is bad enough."  
  
Flint continued, smiling broadly, "As you know there are 3 major leagues. Indigo, Jolt, and Orange. The numbers represent the completed leagues a trainers has completed. The more completed the harder. Only the Indigo 's eight oldest gyms use this system. The system was started by Ash when trainers began to travel multiple leagues and new species began to find new habitats where they were superior to the local wildlife in terms of levels and types."  
  
"So you have 3 sets of pokemon?"  
  
"Yes. 2-on-2. Go! Graveler!"  
  
"Abra! Bring honor!"  
  
Abra teleported to the ground.  
  
"Abra, use the elemental force of Ice!"  
  
"Got it!"  
  
I hope abra can beat that guy. The Graveler must be level 25+!  
  
"Graveler! Ancient Power(new rock technique in Pokemon Gold and Silver)!"  
  
The very rocks of the area began to move. They formed into limbs that struck at a teleporting abra. A few hit, but Abra shrugged the pain off and kept fighting even though even I imagined that I could feel the blows. Soon Abra was able to maneuver inside the attack radius of Graveler. Once in range, Abra used Ice Strike(a comet punch/ice punch combination, Abra's tremendous speed and Graveler's sluggishness allowed him to get off up to twenty hits an attack). Abra hit many times due to Graveler's slow movement, but it was obvious it would take many hits to take the legged rock down.  
  
"Abra! Keep it up! You can beat 'im!"  
  
So Abra did. It took about 15 minutes of constant attacks, but abra finally managed to knockout Graveler. However, he was severely exhausted, a fact that somehow overflowed to me and made me feel dizzy.  
  
"Abra! Return!" he 'ported to my side.  
  
"Graveler! Return! Go! Onix!"  
  
I didn't send out a pokemon. Metapod wouldn't stand a chance versus that rock monstrosity!  
  
Metapod nudged my lower leg, "Don't worry, I can take 'im."  
  
I looked down at him, "You sure?"  
  
"Of course. For, I. Am. Metapod!"  
  
She floated down to the arena, much to Flint's shock.  
  
"Onix! Slam!"  
  
"Metapod! Max Harden! Max Barrier!"  
  
Metapod turned a metallic gold and a visible white shield formed around her. Metapod manages to hold her own against the repeated hits of Onix, but was unable to strike back. Slowly, but surely the barrier began to flicker and fail.  
  
"Metapod! Come back! You don't stand a chance against that thing!"  
  
"I will not give up!"  
  
But it was too late, the barrier failed and Metapod was hit hard by Onix's horn! Pain lanced through my side!  
  
"METAPOD!" I dashed to her side, abra close behind, and tenderly picked her up. There was a long gash in her side.  
  
"No, it's too soon. You can't die now," I said, a tear rolled down my cheek.  
  
"Then I won't," came a voice from within the shell. Light poured through the gash, the light of evolution. Wings unfurled and took flight!  
  
"I. Am. BUTTERFREE!"  
  
Metapod had evolved into a white butterfree with silver eyes. She floated down to me. I gave her a tight hug.  
  
"I thought you were dead."  
  
"Me too," agreed Abra.  
  
"So did I. Evolution hurts!"  
  
I laughed, suddenly giddy. I felt free.  
  
"I need a new name."  
  
"Good point. How about Freedom?"  
  
"Perfect!"  
  
"I hate to break up this touching moment, but we have a match."  
  
"Huh? Oh, right. Freedom?"  
  
"Leave it to me."  
  
I walked back to the trainer area with Abra as Freedom took to the air.  
  
"Onix! Rock Slide!" Onix began to spin.  
  
"Freedom! I have no clue what you can do now, so use your own discretion!"  
  
Freedom nodded and smiled with her eyes. She turned to the Onix and folded her wings over her chest, beginning to glow. Onix whipped boulders from his tail at Freedom.  
  
"Freedom! Watch out!"  
  
Freedom snapped her wings open, "Psybeam Array!"  
  
Dozens of small psybeams fired from her wings, pounding the boulders to dust and blasting Onix back, inch by inch. The barrage kept up for several minutes until the rock snake fell.  
  
"Return!"  
  
"Freedom! You won!" I screamed for joy as she flapped down and landed on my shoulder. Abra jumped up and hugged her, pulling me down. We fell with a crash. With difficulty, we finally untangled ourselves in only a few minutes and laughed. Flint laughed as well as he came over.  
  
"You have defeated me. Here is your Boulder badge. Also take this TM 34."  
  
I took the gray badge, some money, and the TM. Something in the back of my mind told me not to use the TM just yet, so I put it in my bag. I got up and said goodbye and headed out. On my way back to the 'center, night falling, something invisible struck me into the wall.  
  
"What?"  
  
A man dressed in black robes appeared.  
  
"I am Larenth. You may have defeated my dragon brother, but you are no match for me!"  
  
Abra triple kicked him. Since he was apparently Dark type, therefore fighting types were super effective and Larenth began to hop up and down on the other foot.  
  
"Leave him alone!"  
  
Larenth recovered, saying "Annoying whelp! Go! Umbeon!"  
  
The Dark evolution of eevee appeared from a black pokeball's black light. This one was devoid of the brown circles its species had at the tips of their limbs. It immediately began to attack Abra and Freedom. The Dark Adept, which I assumed he was, formed a saber out of the shadows. I drew my sword and threw down my burdens. We crossed blades and began to fight. My world became block, thrust, counter, block. I gave my self to instinct, and the world faded…  
  
Abra  
  
The blasted Umbeon was strong. But together Freedom and I used Fusion. We soon fought him to a stand-still. I turned to look at Sean, but the strange glow had overcome him again, white this time. He quickly overpowered the black man, seemingly strengthened by the glow. A final blow shattered the shadow blade. Sean turned and tossed his ring. It became a streak of burning white that blasted the Umbeon into the horizon. Sean-who-was-not- Sean turned to the Adept.  
  
"Leave this boy alone or suffer the consequences."  
  
Sean waved his hand and the Adept disappeared. Sean turned to us.  
  
"Do not worry Chosen ones. Your master is sane. I am his power. In time we will become one, but until then, tell him nothing of this. He will wake in 1 hour."  
  
And with that, he collapsed.  
  
Freedom looked at me, "Does he do that often?"  
  
"Thankfully, no. Last time was against a guy who could use the power of Dragons. Remind me to research this."  
  
"I'll help, but first let's get Sean to the 'center."  
  
I 'ported the 3 of us to the 'center.  
  
Sean  
  
I dreamed. I was in the Indigo stadium. I saw a man on the champion's podium, a pikachu on his shoulder, Ash. Another man ran in dressed in yellow robes blasted open the doors with what looked to be an electric blast, I shouted a warning, yet did not hear my voice. The Yellow man shouted a challenge, and Ash walked to the rails of his podium. The Adept, for that must be what he was, smirked and released a massive blast of electricity. I screamed with no voice as Ash was enveloped in electricity. An area of resistance built where Ash stood. Soon the blast was knocked away as if by a giant hand with gray fire. The Adept staggered back as the second blast of gray flame struck him…  
  
I woke.  
  
"Sean!" chorused two familiar voices.  
  
"Abra, Freedom?" I croaked, my voice uncooperative. My two friends hugged me tightly.  
  
"We thought you were a gonner."  
  
"Again," added Abra.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"We managed to defeat the Umbeon and when we did the Adept K.O'ed you and disappeared."  
  
"Just like the other one."  
  
I sighed, "If they keep this up I'll never make it through my journey. When can I leave?"  
  
"As soon as you want," said the Pewter Doctor Proctor from the doorway.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
I got up and changed back into my clothes. Again I realized that my pokemon weren't telling the truth, but that thought was strangely shoved aside. I took out my computer and on an intuitive hunch turned on the satellite TV function to double-check my dream…or was it a vision?  
  
"—ther news. Today Ash Ketchum had an attempt on his life. A strange man totaled the Master's guards and somehow attacked with an electric blast. The man was destroyed in an equally strange manner. A blast of gray fire vaporized him."  
  
This will not do.  
  
The voice came from within and without. Power dripped from it.  
  
This will not do at all.  
  
A ripple spread and the satellite feed went black then came on again mentioning nothing of the assassination attempt.  
  
Now forget. As all others have. This will only be remembered when you are reminded, remind another of it or if it is necessary.  
  
I blinked. Why had I turned on my TV? I shook my head. All these battles are getting to me. I felt 3 times as confused as I should be. My pokemon seemed to feel the same…  
  
The next day…  
  
We made good time to Mt. Moon and were challenged several times on the way. I won all the early matches but as my Pokemon tired we found it harder and harder to win, even losing a tough match to a Sneasal wielding PokeManiac. I was lucky that I had just deposited a good chuck of my cash into my web account minutes before the battle. That night was spent in the small town at the base of the Mt. I decided not to work there for a week and instead to just stay the night. We woke early and practiced in the rising light of the sun. Dragonwing worked as well as I had hoped. Dragonclaw was becoming formidable as I practiced. I even convinced an early-rising trainer to let me spar with his scyther. I was able to fight the scyther to a stand still, much to our surprise. Around 8 in the morning I headed into Mt. Moon, ignoring the warning of ghosts as overactive imaginations. Little did I know what I was about to stumble upon…  
  
"Ow! Ow! Leave me alone!"  
  
Sounds of loud impact over came the faint voice. I ran toward its location, only to see several men dressed in black beating a shadowy pokemon.  
  
"Leave her alone!" I yelled. The men were startled long enough for me to release Freedom, who fired a wave of poison powder that caused the men to stumble out of the small cave, disoriented and nauseous.  
  
"Thank you," said the voice weakly, but before I could see who or what it was, it Dug away.  
  
"Wait!" Abra called, too late. I sighed and scratched my scalp wondering who it was. I gave up and looked at my surroundings. I noticed a small tunnel and I had a strange, insistent urge to follow it. I gave in and did so, Abra and Freedom close behind. The tunnel opened into a chamber. In the center of which lay a large green/white boulder with several similar colored fragments lying around it.  
  
"The Moon stone…" whispered Abra in an awed tone.  
  
"How do you know that?" asked Freedom in an equally awed tone.  
  
"As children all psychic pokemon are taught the legend of the Moon stone, an evolution stone whose ability to amplify psychic powers is matched only by a perfectly aligned Tiger's Eye. It is said that the Moon Stone was once the power source for the ship that once brought pokemon to earth."  
  
"Wow. This must be what the Rockets were looking for."  
  
"How'd you know they were Rockets, Sean?"  
  
Abra's innocent question mentally knocked me for a loop, "I haven't I clue, but I'm sure they were Rockets."  
  
Abra and Freedom, for some reason beyond my limited understanding, accepted this. We cautiously walked toward the moon stone. On an urge, I took out an item ball and stuffed it full of 12 moon stones. Once I was done, together we sunk out the Main cave entrance, heading back into Mt. Moon…  
  
Several hours later…  
  
After many hours stumbling through the darkened passages, enduring the constant chorusing of my pokemon, complaining that I neglected to buy a map, We reached the exit chamber, only to be accosted my a half-dozen Rockets!  
  
"Give us you pokemon boy!"  
  
I gave him the "Are you nuts?" look. The Rockets were about to attack, but one of the Rockets started to beep. She took out a small device…  
  
"Boss! This boy has a dozen Moon stones on him!"  
  
"All the more reason too GET HIM!"  
  
They released several pokemon, mainly fire and poison types, and leapt at me. I barely had time to counter attack, let alone draw my sword. The Rocket Pokemon attacked my friends. We fought valiantly, but the hours of wandering had taken their toll on us. After several minutes, Abra fell, soon followed by Freedom and me. Rockets hooted for joy, only to be slammed onto their pokemon by a shadowy pokemon!  
  
"What!?!" yelled the boss Rocket.  
  
"Ghosts! YAHHHHHHHHHH!" was the chorused answer of his men(and women) as they ran.  
  
"Cowards! There are no ghosts!"  
  
"Correct, only me." Came the voice of the pokemon I had saved earlier.  
  
"It's the freak Geodude! Run!"  
  
He ran. I weakly levered myself up to look at my savior. It turned out to be a large geodude with unusually massive arms and a face scared by a diamond line across its eye.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"You are welcome, but my debt remains unpaid. May I join you on your journey? I wish to use the knowledge that our meeting has strangely given me."  
  
"Of course you can, the more the merrier!"  
  
And so another pokemon joined my team, again a girl, and yet again HOW DID I KNOW THAT!?!?!  
  
After a couple hours recovering we left toward Cerulean passing by the sealed remains of the Unknown Dungeon. The dungeon was apparently sealed by a corporation trying to stop Team Rocket from getting their hands on a stasis tube carrying the production model mewtwo, whose DNA they had stolen from Rocket HQ. It was rumored that a Mew protected the cave's entrance. However, not wanting to chase mirages, we headed toward the city soon reached Cerulean. There I healed my pokemon but declined the temporary job, eager to get away from Mt. Moon and the Rockets inside. I headed toward the Cerulean gym, consulting my computer to find it. On the way I discussed my strategy with Abra…  
  
"What do you thing, bud?"  
  
"Well, I agree my thunder techniques are our best bet, but Freedom has a good chance. Also our geodude friend claims to have a high resistance to water."  
  
"Maybe I start with Freedom, switch to you and use Geodude as a last resort. Okay?"  
  
"Good." He said, satisfied.  
  
We approached the circus tent-like gym and entered. We wandered for several minutes, trying to find a trainer before being stopped by a very annoying blond.  
  
"What are you, like, doing here?" she demanded rudely.  
  
I eyed her, "I'm looking for the gym leader here."  
  
"Well, you, like, found her!"  
  
"Nah, I don't think so. You're too much of an airhead to be a water trainer. Flying, maybe, but not water."  
  
Abra snickered.  
  
"WHY YOU--!"  
  
"Oh! Hi, Sean!" Misty called, appearing out of a nearby door.  
  
"Hi, Dr. Waterflower!" I said, happy to se a familiar face.  
  
She looked at her sister, "Daisy? Did you get a sunburn, or somethin, sis?"  
  
The other Sensational Sister screamed in frustration before stomping off.  
  
"What got her goat? Hmmm. Oh, anyway, what are you doing here, Sean?"  
  
"I was going to challenge you."  
  
"Oh? You were, were you? Come on then, the arena's this way."  
  
She motioned toward a hallway baring off to the right. Meanwhile we talked.  
  
"So. You've been here long?"  
  
"About a week. I've been taking surgical cases at the hospitals."  
  
"Human or pokemon?"  
  
"Both."  
  
"Oh. I would've been there to help, but my idiot sisters decided to have a week long challenge that incidentally coincided with their annual vacations with there current boyfriends, leaving me to mind the gym. *sigh* At least, now, I can work that they're back."  
  
We turned a familiar corridor when Abra could help but mention, "Sean. Didn't we pass this before?"  
  
"Shut aaaaaaaaaaaap." I hissed.  
  
We soon reached a large pool. Misty pushed a button on the wall and large multi-colored platforms floated to the surface. She walked to the opposite end of the pool and called, "This will be a 2-0n-2 match! Ready?"  
  
I walked to my position with abra, "Of course! Go! Freedom!"  
  
"A bug, huh? Go! Starmie! Ice Beam!"  
  
The multi-pointed starfish's gem glowed icy blue and fired a beam of freezing cold!  
  
"Freedom! Use elemental counter!"  
  
"Kyah!"  
  
Freedom dashed(?) under the beam and broke it up with several wing strikes!  
  
"What the!?!" Misty yelled in confusion.  
  
I smiled as Freedom plowed into Starmie, cracking its organic jewel, fainting it! Misty recalled Starmie.  
  
"I taught her a few new moves."  
  
"No kiddin'. Time for the heavy artillery! Go! Lapras! Super Blizzard!"  
  
I gaped as a large ice blast froze Freedom solid. For some reason, it chilled me to the bone.  
  
Misty smirked," You're no the only one with a few moves."  
  
"No kidding. Freedom! Good job, bud. Return! Go--!"  
  
Geodude's ball broke open!  
  
"Huh? I didn't call you?"  
  
"Please let me fight."  
  
It felt right for a mysterious reason, so I sent him out.  
  
"Are you nuts!?! You're a surgeon! You know what water does to Rock pokemon!"  
  
I shrugged, "She wants to fight."  
  
Misty shook her head, "You remind me of Ash. Lapras, gently Water Gun!"  
  
Geodude dodged with ease.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Geodude's form blurred with speed momentarily as she streaked at Lapras and struck, K.O.'ing Lapras with a Thunder Punch.  
  
"Hm. Must have picked it up from Abra." I said, somehow forgetting that Geodude can't learn electric attacks.  
  
"WOW! Return! You're awesome! Here's a Cascade Badge to prove that you've beaten me. You truly deserve it! " she said, walking over from the other side and holding a blue teardrop badge and a wad of cash. I took both and leapt up shouting,  
  
"We did it!!!"  
  
I leaped into the air, followed by Geodude and Abra!  
  
Misty chuckled as if remembering something from long ago. Meanwhile, I hugged my friends and a defrosted Freedom. Misty threw me the badge, which I pinned to my sword's carry-rope, then handed me the cash, which I placed in my wallet. I returned my friends(minus the claustrophobic Abra) and was just exiting the building when…  
  
"Hey! Sean!"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
A small blue snake wrapped itself around me.  
  
"Hey! Remember me?"  
  
1.1 Huh?…  
  
"Oh yeah! You're that dratini from the Viridian 'center!"  
  
The tiny dragon smiled up at me before snuggling into my chest.  
  
"I told you I would catch up to you!" He mumbled, head still buried in my chest.  
  
"So you did. Ball or none?"  
  
"Ball. It took me forever to catch up to you guys!"  
  
I chuckled and pulled out a pokemon that he immediately entered.  
  
"Funny guy, huh, Abra."  
  
He nodded, agreeing. I shook my head at the odd things happening lately, yet I was oddly undisturbed by them, as if I knew they were about to happen…  
  
The next day…  
  
Abra and I had traveled for all of yesterday heading north, looking for the sea home of the Pokemaniac Bill. We had run across several trainers, whom we easily defeated, and a few wild pokemon who were acting very skittish. Around noon, we came out the forest only to see…  
  
"Holy Sh**."  
  
"Ditto."  
  
Were our only comments to the area of destruction in front of us. Numerous craters, fissures, and small lakes lay before us. All that was still standing was the stump of the lighthouse where Bill lived. We carefully ran toward the blackened stump. Once there, we found nothing. Except…  
  
"Hey Abra! You feel something?"  
  
"Now that you mention it, yeah."  
  
"Over here, I think I found something."  
  
And I had. A metal door embedded in the floor of the former lighthouse.  
  
"Huh? What is it, Sean?"  
  
"Don't know. Ah ha! Here's the handle!"  
  
I found an embedded handle, pulled it out, and opened the hatch, only to find a long drop through a hole.  
  
"Abra, should we try it?"  
  
"What have we to lose? I can always 'port us out if we get in trouble."  
  
"Good point. Geronimo!"  
  
I jumped in, closely followed by Abra…  
  
Soon…  
  
"Ouch!"  
  
There was no leveling out, just a drop.  
  
"Omph!"  
  
Abra had landed on me.  
  
"Ahhhhh, sorry, Sean."  
  
"It's okay. Now where are we?"  
  
We looked around and what we saw was amazing, we were underground several hundred feet, yet were sitting in a large meadow complete with lake, illuminated, it seemed, by the minerals vein in the ceiling that must lead to the surface. On the opposite side of the field, over a mile away, there was what looked to be a factory/temple. Several pokemon, apparently psychic- types, were causing blocks of stone to appear and float to attach onto a growing structure, a lighthouse.  
  
"Abra, are they doing what I think they're doing?"  
  
"Yeah. Wow, what control."  
  
We were interrupted by a large Machamp attacking us from behind! Luckily, I somehow felt him coming, as did Abra. We leaped away just in time.  
  
"Ma champ. Ma ma cha amp amp ma."  
  
"What did he say?"  
  
"Ahhhh, I think he thinks that we're Rockets."  
  
"Huh? Why? No, wait, I know. The attack upstairs. Any chance we can convince him otherwise?"  
  
"What do you think!!!?" yelled Abra as he dodged several quick mega punches.  
  
"Yo! You muscle-bound idiot! Over here!" I yelled, drawing my sword.  
  
The machamp paused, turning to me, eyes red. He leaped! And time seemed to slow. I dodged to the left with a short leap, then jumped once more, flipping over its head striking the machamp with the back of my sword, which for some reason I thought was glowing purple. I landed on the opposite side from which I started as time returned to its normal flow. Oddly, my attack totally K.O.'ed the Machamp…and brought us to the attention of about 50 Kadabras and an Alakazam who had teleported to our location and were levitating 5 ft. above us before the unconscious machamp had even hit the ground.  
  
Who are you! demanded a mental voice.  
  
"You first!" replied Abra.  
  
I am Kara. Alakazam of the first order! I am the Master of Teleportation on this continent! Now who are you!  
  
"Calm down Kara," said a man in his late 30's who was approaching us from my right. He had green hair and a red suit. The Alakazam, Kara, and the others backed off and descended. "Hello, I'm Bill, formerly of the lighthouse. Or should I say 'of the former lighthouse'."  
  
This managed to get a weak chuckle out of Abra and myself.  
  
"May I ask your names?"  
  
"I'm Sean Curran and this is Abra. We were traveling through the forest and came upon the remains of your lighthouse."  
  
"How'd you get down here though?"  
  
"We used a hatch."  
  
Impossible, I shielded that hatch myself. No non-psychic could detect it.  
  
"You did say master of 'Teleportation' not 'illusion'," said Abra arrogantly.  
  
I kicked him from behind, "Please don't piss off the high-level Alakazam that could probably teleport you apart."  
  
"Good point. Come, let's get something to eat and let the psychics get back to work."  
  
Interesting… "said" Kara before she teleported away with the others, after having lingered for a second. Momentarily, the lighthouse construction continued.  
  
"This way."  
  
Bill started off toward a cabin in the western corner of the cavern. We followed, soon reaching a small cottage, which we entered. Bill motioned for us to sit in the pair of miss-matched chairs beside the table as he looked for something…  
  
"Ahhhhh, Bill? What 'cha looking for?"  
  
"My tofu drink mixes. Kara's been too busy rebuilding the Lighthouse to cook."  
  
"We'll pass, " commented Abra, sitting in the small of the two chairs.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Abra said that we'll pass on the drinks."  
  
"Oh. You can understand him?"  
  
"Yeah, shouldn't I be able to?"  
  
Bill just shrugged.  
  
I remembered the battle scene above and asked Bill what had happened. He just sighed, walked back to the table at which Abra and I sat, popped open a hidden drawer, and placed the set of pictures he had removed from the drawer. They showed what looked to be 3 giant mechanical suits in separate positions of attack; they all looked eerily familiar. Two were nearly identical, broad, goldenrod in color, and had a single, square blue eye set in a V-shaped head. They had only two visible differences, one had two large Talgeese-esque vernie engines on its back, the other sported what looked to be some type of water jet-pack, obvious, since in most pictures, it was half in the water. The second difference was that they held different staff weapons. One held a silver staff tipped with a black blade in the shape of the Greek symbol Omega(Ω), which appeared to be a type of vibro-blade from the pictures of it shredding the upper part of the lighthouse; the other, a black staff tipped in a silver Alpha, which appeared to be a type of water cannon. The third mobile suit struck me cold, although it seemed to be incomplete as shown by the stingy, unarmored arms, unarmored chest areas, and no arm shield and a smaller rocket launcher braced on it shoulder instead of a gun. Nevertheless, it had to be the Black Talgesse I had seen in my dream.  
  
"Those are 'Mobile Suits' manufactured by Team Rocket. They showed up two days ago and blasted the hell out of the lighthouse. None of the pokemon here could stop them. We managed to flee here before the Omega one launched a volley of missiles from the sides of its abdomen at the Lighthouse. We have nothing that can't fight these things. And it's going to take years to design and build our own."  
  
"What if you had the designs for superior MS?" said Abra, just before I kicked his shin…okay, so I hit a bit high.  
  
"What did he say?" asked Bill.  
  
"Oh, nothing."  
  
"Cut the crap, Sean. We both know that you have MS designs stored in your computer. Those designs may be our only chance against Team Rocket," berated Abra, rubbing his stomach, grimacing in pain.  
  
He is correct.  
  
I jumped out of my seat, turning my head to see Kara.  
  
"Ah, Kara. I assume you are almost finished?"  
  
No. I came only to convince this boy to help.  
  
"And how could he do that?" asked Bill, incredulously.  
  
I sighed, realizing that Abra was correct, "By giving you the designs I vowed would never be made," I said, taking my computer, and placing it on the table. "Computer, activate."  
  
"Online," said a monotone female voice.  
  
"Activate three-dimensional projection unit. Open Forbidden File, subset MS designs. Ninja, Firestorm, Berserker, Aikido, and Shifter. Display. Optimum view."  
  
"Acknowledged. Projecting."  
  
5 forms appeared in mid-air to my left. The first, Ninja, was totally black. It was in the form of a non-traditional ninja(more like an elaborate version of Kage from Virtura Fighter 2, but had 3 large 4 pointed stars on each arm and two swords about 3/5 the height of the suit in length strapped in a cross X on is back at 50 degrees as well as minor cosmetic changes). It didn't have any wrinkles on its armor, making it a shiny black. The second MS, Firestorm, was almost twice as broad as the first, fiery orange in color, and had deep red crystals of varying sizes on it. One on ea. shoulder, one on the back, 1 on each forearm, one on its chest, in each palm, and one on each of the two engines(similar to Talgeese's) on its back, at the center of the quad rocket launchers built into the top of each engine. Its head was like that of a samurai's(think the heads of the dark soldiers in Ronin Warriors). It's torso was similar to that of Iron Man's Hulkbuster armor(see Marvel Comics) with its massive two-part breastplate on the upper sides of the crystal, which hid an array of weapons. The third, Berserker, was a velvety black color that gave of a rippling golden sheen. It's head was like that of a motorcycle helmet, but tapered to a pointed "chin" in the front, and had a tapered spike on the back that was about half the length of the forearm. The glass-like front of the head was slivered and wrapped around to the sides of the head. A similar spike was on ea. elbow and knee(elbow ones are 3/4 the length of the fore arm and the ones on each knee only travel up to the top of the leg). The arms ended a rounded hand with 5 curved claws as fingers(think the arms of Shriek from Batman Beyond, but a small, eye-shaped gem in the center of where those blue-things where and only on the top, and the spike tapering from the elbow out). The feet were similarly shaped but smaller with only 3 claws on the front and one on the heel. The front of the head was a wedged-shaped, silvered visor. It had a chest not unlike that of Tom 2(see Cartoon Network Toonami) but without the nuclear symbol. 4 evenly-sectioned, short, tab- like wings pointed out at diagonal from a backpack(shaped like the first layer of a rectangular pyramid) on its back(about the size of half the upper back) that had a rotating center circle of 5 engine nozzles(4 around 1). The MS's surface seem to shift, even though it was just a hologram. The fourth MS, Aikido, was shorter than the rest and was a gray color. Its features could not be made out, as the hologram shifted, portraying the energy-absorbing abilities of its techno-organic armor, which unlike Berserker's, which could regenerate and only have minor shape changes. It had a large, circular shield, only slightly smaller in diameter than the suit was tall, attached to its back. The shield was matted black, criss- crossed with silver lines and concentric circles of silver which ran over its curved black surface with an indented setting for a dome-shaped, golden gem. The Fifth Suit was a light maroon purple. It had two dragon-like wings on it back. 25 spheres floated around it. The torso was shaped as a samurai's was, but smooth with no gaps between the plates. The legs were standard MS legs, but had ovoid feet. The arms were a bit thinner that a Leo's would have been, if one was made. A large sword was slung at a steep angle on its back. It's eyes were a midnight blue visor. The Mobile Suits were very intimidating.  
  
"Sean, you're still holding back," prompted Abra.  
  
"But--,"  
  
"Not that one, we both want to avoid that possibility," he said, obviously somehow knowing what happens in my nightmares, "I mean Dark Nova,"  
  
"But I haven't finished it yet. I can't get the Tap Generator to work in simulations."  
  
"Doesn't matter, I know you can get it done."  
  
"Fine," I turned to Bill, "I can download these designs into your system, but my final design isn't finished yet. Do you think tha--?"  
  
Kara interrupted me, Let me handle it. I know of your design. You posted part of it on the internet awhile back. I know what is wrong. You need a crystal to keep a lock on the dimension or star you tap into.  
  
I blinked, realization hitting me, "Of course! The--!"  
  
"Not now, Sean," warned Abra.  
  
I sighed, "Fine. Spoil my fun," I turned to Bill. "Where's your computer system?"  
  
"You sitting over it. I built it under this cavern."  
  
I stared, remembering that the cavern was almost a mile wide, "That's one hell of a computer."  
  
We still haven't begun to use it to the full. said Kara, staring poignantly at Bill.  
  
Bill sweatdropped, "I thought it might come in handy. How was I supposed to know you'd have to build a nuclear reactor as well to power it?"  
  
Abra and I fell to the floor, stunned once more.  
  
Several days later…  
  
"This seems to be goodbye," said Bill.  
  
"For now at least."  
  
"All is as it should be," stated Abra.  
  
We should have your Ninja design done first, in just over a month.  
  
"Hopefully, I won't need it so soon. 'Bye! I'll see you when I can."  
  
"Wait, a sec. You aren't going so soon are you?" asked a voice from inside the doorway.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
A machop stepped out from the shadows.  
  
"You're the one who beat the Machamp who's been bullying me. Could you train me?"  
  
"Of course! The more the merrier!" I said, holding out a 'ball, which he(How'd I know that?) entered.  
  
"Thanks for everything Bill, you too Kara!"  
  
It is we who should be thanking you. You may have saved us all from the Rockets.  
  
"'Bye! Nice meeting you!" called Abra from up the path.  
  
"Hey you! Wait up!!!" I yelled, running to catch up. As I ran, I thought I could hear Kara's thought voice, faint, as if she were speaking to someone else, but understandable.  
  
So, the prophecies are true. I wish that they weren't. The Forbidden have come again, and woe to the world when they awaken yet it will not be they who are the worst…  
  
A week-and-a-half later…  
  
Here we were once more, wandering in a forest.  
  
"Hey, Sean. Where are we?" Asked Machop.  
  
"Yeah, slithering over all these roots is exhausting!"  
  
"Hey! At least you don't have to dodge all these branches! You'd think these plants would be more considerate! And all this wind! Jeesh!"  
  
"Stop complainin'! At least you don't have to carry around a 55 pound body!"  
  
"Would you guys be quiet! Sean hears something!" shouted Abra, over the din of my other pokemon. And it was true. At the edges of my senses, I could just hear human voices, maddeningly close, but faint over the wind, which was rapidly becoming chilly as we seemed to approach the voices. I drew my sword, hoping it would help me focus. I brought it to horizontal, and closed my eyes, focusing. I filtered out what I could and concentrated on the noise.  
  
"This way," I said opening my eyes and pointing my sword to our right, and walked in that direction, my pokemon in tow. Soon we came upon a silvery, semi-transparent wall that curved high into the sky, we peered into it, but all we could see were our own reflections over shadowy ghosts of a snow- covered forest.  
  
"What is it, Sean?" asked machop.  
  
"I think it's a weather control field," I said, palpating the field after having sheathed my sword, finding it to be semi-tangible, and very cold on the other side. I snatched my hand back at the cold.  
  
"Yep, has to be. It's freezing cold on the other side. Dratini, Freedom, Geodude. You guys may want to get in your pokeballs, you're all weak against Ice."  
  
They shook their heads(bodies?).  
  
"No need, Freedom and I have been developing a resistance to cold. This'll be a good test!" said Dratini in his annoyingly cheerful voice.  
  
"And I have trained in the ice caves below Mt. Moon. I will be fine," stated Geodude.  
  
I just shook my head, and together we entered into the dome. On the other side, we were greeted with harsh, chill winds and snow blowing in our faces. My three Ice-vulnerable friends shivered, but seemed to be able to withstand the cold. I smiled wondering wistfully how strong my friends would be when they were fully-grown and trained. The snow seemed to be about a foot to three thick. The trees at our sides were mostly evergreens. I drew my sword but kept it at rest as we trudged through the snow. But I couldn't help but wonder who would have enough money for a generator big enough to do this, and why would they??? My mental wanderings were cut short by someone, a girl, calling, "Shellder! Ice Beam!" from behind a tree. The ray of cold shot at me, only to be split in two by my sword's upward slash(don't ask me how I was able to move that fast). The two trees behind us couldn't do much except turn into rounded wedges of ice. My sword seemed to have a slight, but rapidly fading, red glow, which I noticed as I paused, a bit stunned at what had happened. My Pokemon didn't feel the need for such a pause to stop, and instead fulfilled their need to blast the area the beam came from with two thunder pulses, a rock slide, a psybeam, and a firebolt. All of which impacted on something…  
  
"OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!" yelled a female voice from behind a now toasted bush, echoed by a flying Shellder, who landed, smoking and melting the snow under it, right in front of us. Needless to say, it was also fainted. A young, brown-haired girl in a school uniform and fur-lined coat fell out from the toasted bush, blackened and singed. She was also quite irate, but paralysis seems to hinder the expression of such emotions.  
  
"Ahhhhhh…Heh. Sorry," I apologized. I sheathed my sword then began fumbling in my pack for my med-kit's item ball. I finally found it, opened it, opened the white box, and took out a Human Paralyze Heal. I sprayed it on her, then turned to see my pokemon sheepishly apologizing to the shellder they toasted as it recovered via the Revive they had given it, after removing it from my pack. In a moment, I had a rather angry girl of about 15 yelling in my ear…  
  
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU ATTACK ME!!! I'LL GET YOUR LICENSE REVOKED FOR THIS! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT HURT!!! AND MY POOR SHELLDER!!! YOU DIRTY, INFERIOR PEAS--!!!" she shrieked, until she was interrupted by a loud computerized voice that echoed through the forest…  
  
"This winter battle-tactics session is finished. Weather field de- activating. Tomorrow will be storm tactics. Please return inside as snow melts."  
  
"OHHHHHHH! HMPH! You got of lucky this time, you! I have to go in if I don't want my clothes to get ruined! Return! Shelleder!"  
  
"Shellshell!" the clamp pokemon said apologetically to my pokemon, before disappearing in red light that was sucked into the girl's pokeball. She stomped off through the forest as the snow began to melt.  
  
"If you ask me, I think her clothing is already ruined," I commented, then turned to my pokemon, "You guys need to work on your aim,"  
  
They just looked sheepish, and laughed nervously.  
  
"Any clue what's around here?" I inquired from my computer, having whipped it out.  
  
A map of the area appeared on the screen with a small red dot over where we were.  
  
"You are on the grounds of Pokemon Tech. Approximately 100 mi. from Vermillion city," said the synthesized feminine voice of my computer.  
  
"Direction of main building?"  
  
"Northwest from current position."  
  
"Come on guys, we'll need a place to stay for tonight, and there's nothing else for a few miles."  
  
"Sure!" was the chorused reply as they fell in behind me, trudging through the melting snow toward a building hidden behind the trees.  
  
Soon…  
  
We came upon a wide open area, now damp with melted snow, surrounded by a large mansion-like building on two sides, and several battling arenas on the third. In the center of this open area lay a large spherical object, the weather field generator.  
  
"Guess, you were right, Sean," said Abra.  
  
"Yeah, let's see if we can find the local Pokecenter."  
  
"100 ft. straight ahead," said a humorous female voice.  
  
"Thanks…Huh?"  
  
I had apparently left my computer on…but how could the voice display emotion? Huh…Weird. I turned off my computer which was stored at my waist and headed toward the 'center as the snow melted and was drained into storm drains scattered across the area. We entered the gothic building that was the adjoining 'center, and was greeted by a group of noisy students. They had been gossiping loudly, but now stopped as my pokemon and I entered…  
  
"Uh…Hi," said Abra.  
  
"Yeah, hi," I repeated.  
  
A look of superiority and disgust appeared on a majority of the faces looking at me. Abra and the others growled a bit, but it only caused even more faces to be disgusted. Although, one face seemed familiar.  
  
"So, Loser. What's a piece of trash like you doing here?" stated a well- dressed young man, stepping out of the crowd. My eyes narrowed, it was Joseph Oak.  
  
I smirked, "Hi, Joe! How's you Eevee? I hope Abra didn't hurt it too much last time. How'd you get in here anyhow? I thought you had to pass a test, and I doubt your intelligence."  
  
"Eevee's fine, he'd slaughter your puny abra any day. And I was so good in training by the time I got here, I didn't have to take the test."  
  
"And here I was thinking they took pity on your IQ,"  
  
"Why you!" he screamed at me, trying to leap at me, only to be stopped by the sight of my hand snapping up toward my sword's handle.  
  
I snarled, "I dare you to even try."  
  
"Hey you! Don't threaten our students!" yelled a brown haired lady approaching us, the brat girl from earlier in tow. I shrugged and let my hand drop.  
  
"Hey! You're the guy who attacked me earlier! Big Sis! This is the guy!"  
  
The lady looked at me harshly, "So you're the one who attacked her. I hope you know that it is a serious offense to attack another human using your pokemon."  
  
"Yes, and that is why my pokemon were aiming at her shellder, which had just fired an Ice Beam, directly at me, at her command! I'm sorry that my pokemon missed and hit her, but I'm not going to punish them for reacting appropriately to the situation," I pointed out relatively calm and reasonable, hoping that the student's attitude didn't reflect the teachers'.  
  
The lady looked a bit stunned before turning on her sister with a flurry of jumbled words. Once she was through with the verbal abuse, and the girl made a meek apology, the lady spoke to me once more.  
  
"Sorry about that. I tend to jump to conclusions about people. I'm Giselle, the head Battling instructor at this school. This is my sister Kathrine. She's attacked people before. Three times to be exact."  
  
"Oh. So she's the one Ash told me about. Glad to see she's recovered from that Thunder attack."  
  
Giselle and her sister paled a bit, "You know the pokemon master?"  
  
"Yeah. My hometown lies in the mountains, he passed through once."  
  
"Oh," Giselle looked noticeably calmer, but her sister still looked a bit pale.  
  
The crowd around us had dissipated slightly after Giselle showed up, but Joe remained.  
  
"You're going to let this peasant get away with attacking a fellow student! I'll see you fired for this!"  
  
"My, my, Joe. Aren't you overestimating yourself? I seem to remember Abra here beating the Magikarp out of you the last time we met."  
  
Joe just got redder, "I'll show you!" he turned to Giselle, manner changing rapidly, "Ma'am, may we have use of the indoor training arena?"  
  
Giselle looked amused, "Of course. We can't have travelers insult the name of Pokemon Tech, can we sis?"  
  
She smiled wickedly, "Of course not. I'll referee."  
  
"Oh no you don't, young lady! You're coming with me to see the principal!"  
  
Giselle grabbed her sister's ear and pulled her, despite loud and pained protests, out of the 'center.  
  
"Well, Joe? Shall we find this arena and settle this?"  
  
"Don't you want to heal your pokemon?"  
  
I turned to my friends, "Well? You guys want to?"  
  
They shook their heads.  
  
"We don't want to waste the time for two rejuvenations," said Abra.  
  
I laughed, while Joe looked puzzled.  
  
"Don't ask. You're red enough already."  
  
Joe, steaming, stomped off, motioning for me to follow. A few minutes later, we reached a large gym-like arena, lighted by a combination of huge windows and spotlights. Apparently, the word of our battle had spread, as the stands were filling with students. Joe walked to the farther end while I walked to and stood in the outlined trainer's box. By now there were about 50 students in the stands.  
  
Joe called out from the end of the arena, "This'll be a 3-on-3 match! Standard League rules. Agreed?"  
  
"Sure!" I called back, listening to some of the jeering comments of the students. Most ran along the lines of, "How could this poor commoner even dream of beating Joe!" and "Joe's a top student, no way he could be beaten with such lowly-evolved pokemon."  
  
My pokemon were unhappy about the jeering and entered into their pokeballs in preparation for battle, minus Abra of course.  
  
"Go! Abra!" I called.  
  
"Go! Umbeon!"  
  
The dark pokemon appeared on the field. The umbeon stood and growled. Abra 'ported out onto the field and sat in a cross-legged position.  
  
"There's no way a unevolved psychic-type would last a second against my Dark-type Umbeon! My new strategies are unbeatable!" declared Joe to the agreeing crowd. I silenced them by drawing my sword, slowly so the ringing of its steel(?) could be heard. I brought it to a rest position at my right side.  
  
"A true Master Trainer learns not to depend on the pokemon's standard type and moves, but instead mix and match attacks and types to compensate. Abra, show him the power of Fighting," I stated quietly to the church-like silence of the room. Abra slowly stood and brought himself into a fighting stance. A split second later, Abra leaped into a blazing 6-hit combo of kicks and punches that sent the Dark-type flying out of the ring and into a back wall, where it slid down, unconscious. Abra slowly drew back his extended leg to a standing position, then bowed in the direction of the fallen Dark-type before teleporting back to where he started. The students of P.T. could only stare in horror as Joe shakily returned his pokemon. And sent out a Crobat. The four-winged purple bat flapped out onto the field.  
  
"Now, Electric."  
  
Abra powered up a Raiden's Fist, teleported into midair in front of the bat, and blasted it out of the air with a mighty flash and thunderclap. The Students were even more stunned at this happening, as was Joe who had to returned his charred pokemon. Abra again 'ported back to his starting position before the Crobat had even touched the ground. Joe sent out a Piloswine.  
  
"Now Fire and Ice."  
  
Abra charged an Antipode Fist attack(Fire Fist and Frost Fist combo) while the Piloswime fired a Blizzard, that was just dodged through use of a teleport. Abra appeared behind the opponent, and blasted it with the Antipode Fist. Talk about freezer burn. The poor thing wouldn't be moving anytime soon. Joe returned his pokemon, red in anger.  
  
"You must have cheated! How else could such an idiot have beaten me!" he screamed, some students agreeing, calling horrendous insults at my pokemon and me. It took all of my considerable will power to stop myself from turning him into a visual example of human anatomy to future med-students. Abra seemed to be having a similar conflict. Luckily for Joe, a woman with ice blue hair, walked into the light. She wore her hair in an elaborate pony-tail. She also had elaborate glasses on her face and wore a simple midnight blue dress. The entire student body's jeers disappeared instantly. Joe seemed confident and had a malicious gleam in his eye.  
  
"Ah! Assistant Principal Lorelei! Good to see you. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to request that you revoke this cheater's license."  
  
Abra growled, flexing his fingers as if he wanted to break Joe's neck with them. I was in full agreement with Abra. But luckily for him, it didn't come to that.  
  
Lorelei asked in an amused tone, "And why should I do that?"  
  
"He cheated! How else could such a poor loser beat me, a member of Pokemon Tech!"  
  
"And what proof do you have of this?"  
  
"It's impossible for a puny Abra to defeat my first-class Umbeon! It's not possible!"  
  
"Oh, I quite agree," she said, and Joe turned to me smirking(I had to grab Abra's shoulder to stop him from leaping to attack Joe), but Lorelei continued, "But that abra is far from puny, as your Umbeon is far from first-class. Now I suggest you don't make such hasty assumptions of others…or your strength."  
  
All of Joe's polite mask had disappeared by now, "But how else but through cheating could an abra use such active attacks! They're supposed to sleep most of the day!"  
  
I mentally reeled a bit at this, now remembering that Abra never had to sleep more than I. But the current conversation was much more interesting than such a triviality.  
  
"Well, there are notable exceptions. It really depends on the trainer's relationship to his or her pokemon. Pikachu aren't very powerful at the norm, but would you accuse the Pokemon Master of cheating? His Pikachu can outshock Zapdos, you know."  
  
Joe just got redder until he snapped after I made a comment that narrow- minded trainers have a narrow chance to be great and Ms. Lorelei agreed. With a roar of rage, he stomped off, out of the gym.  
  
"I assume you all have something better to do?" she called to the assembled students. They scattered like cockroaches from light. Lorelei turned to me.  
  
"You seem to have stirred up allot of trouble for being here for just over an hour."  
  
"Sorry."  
  
"He deserved it."  
  
I lightly kicked Abra from behind.  
  
"Well, he did."  
  
"Be that as it may, Abra. We have caused a good deal of uproar," I told him, sheathing my sword.  
  
"True. The headmaster, Joe Floria, is in a meeting at the moment, or else this situation would've attracted him as well," she turned to get a better look at me. "You really are an impressive trainer, you know. Joe is the second best trainer in his section, but as you said, many of our trainers are narrow-minded, and I'm not just talking about types."  
  
I shrugged, as did Abra, "You should really fix that."  
  
"I've been trying, but most of the board members are stubborn old men who believe in a 'proper' form of training: sticking to one specialty type," sighed a man entering from the same entrance through which Joe left.  
  
"Any luck?" asked Lorelei.  
  
"Nope. I just ended the meeting. We weren't getting anywhere. I've gotten them to let up a bit on the 'one type only' rule, but as to training the students in multi-type techniques for their pokemon or even letting them learn to train more than three different pokemon while they're here. Let alone non-standard attacks," the man, who had to be the Headmaster, Joe Floria, sighed once more.  
  
"Let me guess. The board members are old school. They believe that there is one all-powerful type, as said in the legends, and that that type is their own," said Abra. I translated, having thought of something similar at about the same time.  
  
"Yep. You got it," confirmed Joe, amazingly, actually talking to Abra, unlike some of the trainers I had met.  
  
"I admit that I was once a member of that group, until I was proved wrong. Several times. Badly. By several younger trainers. Joe is a member of those certain trainers."  
  
"I only beat you barely."  
  
"Yeah, with only your Victrebell and with your newly developed Grass Anhilator."  
  
"Well, Ash did teach me the basics of that technique. And his Bulbasaur has even more powerful techniques. Anyway, I'd like to talk in private with our new visitor."  
  
"Of course, Headmaster," she said, bowing before heading out of the arena.  
  
"Shall we walk?"  
  
"Fine with me, come on Abra."  
  
Together, we started walking out of the gym.  
  
"So, where are you from?"  
  
"Silver Town(it was finally named a few days ago, I found out from my mother when she made her nightly call over my computer's satellite link) on the Johto-Kanto boarder."  
  
"That's a long way away for a journey. Had fun?"  
  
"Can't complain. It's had its ups and downs."  
  
"So it does, so it does."  
  
We had reached a room full of computer simulators. Several students greeted Joe, but most were too absorbed in their simulations to pay much attention to us.  
  
"Well, I get to the point. I was wondering if—"  
  
"I would join your school? Thanks but no thanks. I don't believe in this form of teaching. It's too dependant on books, and I've yet to see a single one of your students be good friends with their pokemon. Besides, I already have a career outside of training," I said taking out my med-badge case and opening it. Joe stared for a few moments before replying,  
  
"So you do. I had heard that a young trainer had earned badges, but I didn't give much credit to that rumor. I guess I was wrong. Oh well, if you ever change your mind, my offer stands."  
  
"Thanks, but could you show us where a room is? Abra's tired out," I said, gesturing to the half-asleep pokemon on my shoulder, having stowed my med- badges. Joe chuckled, and motioned for me to follow him. We walked for a few minutes and eventually came upon a set of rooms in a building adjoining the boys' dorm. There were apparently 4 other trainers spending the night, all of which were engrossed in playing a game of Magic: The Gathering.  
  
"Take any empty room. There'll be a student sent in the morning to show you where the cafeteria is," Joe waved goodbye as he left.  
  
"So, Abra. You know how to play?"  
  
He smiled, "Let's find out!"  
  
I took out my red(Heat of Fusion, anti-creature) and green(Llandowar Rising, creature army) decks. I tossed Abra, who had begun to wake himself up, the red deck and walked over to the trainers.  
  
"Can we join in?"  
  
"Sure. We're done this turn anyway. My Celestial Convergence is about to go off. I'm Harry, I specialize in Flying types," said a trainer wearing a blue tank-top and black shorts. He had a pidgey perched on his shoulder.  
  
The trainer in gray shirt and trousers greeted us next, "I'm Greg. I specialize in Steel types," he said in a voice with an odd metallic edge to it.  
  
A blue-eyed, blond-haired girl with her hair tied into twin ponytails wearing a flower emblazoned, green T-shirt and baggy jeans was next, "I'm Serena. I just LOVE Grass types!" she exclaimed in a happy voice.  
  
"And I'm Bruce. Serena's my younger sister. I specialize in Dark-types, and have just one this game," said the 4th trainer who wore a leather jacket over his plain black clothes.  
  
I observed the game area before replying, "Corrupt for 15 life? Good plan. I'm Sean, that's Abra," Abra waved hello, "I don't really have a specialty type. Can Abra play?"  
  
Greg looked at him skeptically, "Does he know how?"  
  
"He should. I've lent him my deck."  
  
"Why not? It should be interesting," said Bruce, gathering his cards to shuffle. The others shrugged and began to shuffle their cards. Abra and I took out our respective decks and shuffled…  
  
Later that night…  
  
"I attack with my 8/8 molten hydra, targeting Sean," said Abra.  
  
"Not bad, Abra. But…I cast Fog."  
  
"Darn. I knew you had one of those left. I'm at 10 life. Your turn, Sean,"  
  
We had played two games so far, the first when we arrived(Greg one by a very lucky cheap shot: 4x Soul Siphon followed by an Inferno, powered by 4 Magistrate's Scepters), another after an early dinner(we ate in the cafeteria, which was actually amazingly good; but considering that the school tuition is almost 29,000 pokedollars a year, it'd better be. We only had to pay 15 pokedollars for a 4-course gourmet quality meal.) which Abra had managed to win, and this final game had been going on for over two hours. It was about 9:30PM by now. Everyone else had been taken out by my many creatures, but that was only because Abra had gotten unlucky, apparently he hadn't drawn any of the anti-creature cards in the deck. But everyone else had ignored him for awhile, long enough for me to take out everyone else. I had a variety of creatures in play, the most notable of which was my now 15/15 Hunted Wumpus. Needless to say, I quickly won. The others(Including my pokemon, which I had released, letting them use in cycle the other two decks I had brought) clapped as I shook hands with Abra. We packed up our cards and went off to an appropriate bedroom. As Abra and I drifted off to sleep, I again marveled at how alike my pokemon and I were, we even used the same strategies…  
  
The next morning…  
  
I awoke at dawn, or what there was of it. I looked outside, seeing a storm that had either blown up, or was created by the weather-field. As I woke, my pokemon also did. Despite grumbles of malcontent, I led them in a series of stretches and warm-up exercise in our fairly large room. I had decided to delay our usual morning training till after breakfast. Once we finished, we quietly exited and headed down to the kitchen/recreational area of the cottage, myself having picked up my pack on the way out. There, we were greeted by Bruce.  
  
"Morning," I greeted.  
  
"Good morn. Nice to see that I'm not the only one who gets up before noon. Wanta' come with me to breakfast?"  
  
"Fine with me. Abra, 'port yourself, Machop, Geodude, Dratini, and Freedom to the 'center. You guys need a revitalization in the machine. I pretty sure you'll like the food there better anyway."  
  
My pokemon chuckled in agreement, they had little like for the food they had at the cafeteria; in fact, I think the only human foods they like were my favorites, so that worked out well after late shifts at the hospital or 'center. Even though Machop and Dratini had yet to have joined us at work, they also seemed to have the same knowledge and skills as my other pokemon and I did. They waved goodbye as Abra 'ported them to the 'center.  
  
Bruce shook his head, "One would envy your bond with your pokemon. Shall we go into the tempest?"  
  
"I have a better idea. Let's first turn on a rain shield. You have one?"  
  
"Nope. Too high-tech for me. I stick with a raincoat usually."  
  
"I can cover the two of us with this, so let's get going. Unless you want to wake someone else, your sister maybe?"  
  
"Nah. Serena's too much of a morning person. And I doubt Harry or Greg are waking up for awhile yet, they strike me as those who rather sleep than eat early."  
  
I took out the small blue, circular device that was the rain shield out of my bag, and with Bruce close by, activated it, heading out the door, rain running off the faintly visible walls of the shield. We soon reached the cafeteria, which I was surprised to find, was half full of students working as they ate. Perhaps not all of them were the rich brats I had thought them. I deactivated the shield and walked into line. The breakfast selection included fresh bagels and bread, a wide variety of cereals and fruit, and several chefs to cook hot food fresh. I ordered a soft-boiled egg, a Belgian waffle, 3 sausage patties, and picked up a bowl of perfectly ripened strawberries. Bruce had a breakfast that seemed to consist of a stack of 10 flapjacks, a bowl of oatmeal, and a plate of bacon and sausage. I was apparently not the only hungry one. As we were looking for a table, we were greeted by a fairly tall Japanese boy who had a heavy build.  
  
"Hello. My name is Hugo Matsumoto. I see you're looking for a table, so would you mind sitting with me and my friends?" he asked politely.  
  
"It's fine with me, I'm Sean."  
  
"It's also fine with me. I'm Bruce."  
  
We followed Hugo to a relatively empty table, occupied by a Korean boy and an Indian boy. Both greeted us, identifying themselves as Kevin Hu and Kunal Patel respectively. They seemed nice, and all of us engaged in a conversation. They were curious what it was like on the road, and Bruce and I curious about life in a school like this. We covered a variety of subtopics such as: food, pokemon, learning, battling, and the like. We talked for over an hour, Serena, Harry, and Greg joining us at about 7:20. At 7:30, we all decided to have a quick set of battles before they had to leave to go to class. The Techies led us to a large group of indoor arenas. Hugo challenged me, Bruce challenged Kevin, and Kunal challenged Serena. Harry and Greg also decided to battle. We split up as Abra 'ported with the others to my side.  
  
"I knew you'd get into a 'battle, so I had Freedom psychically 'bug' you," said Abra.  
  
I rolled my eyes, "We are too similar for comfort," I turned to Hugo, who now stood at the opposite side of the arena. "3-on-3?"  
  
"Sure! Go! Machop!"  
  
"I wanta' fight!"  
  
"Fine, go get 'um, Machop!"  
  
Hugo's Machop was very bulky and its stance revealed it to be using Judo.  
  
"Machop! Take him out with a Low Kick!" yelled Hugo.  
  
"Machop! Jump and Drop Kick!"  
  
Hugo's Machop threw a long sweep at mine, which he just avoided by a vertical jump that turned into a drop kick that it dead center on the back of Hugo's Machop's neck, K.O.'ing it. Hugo was quite surprised.  
  
"I need to work on his speed more. Return, bud! Go! Geodude! Show it that new toss we worked out!"  
  
Geodude dashed at Machop arms ready to grap and flip him, but I had trained Machop to react at his own discretion on cases like this. He leapt head- first between the Geodude's arms, but he misjudged his speed and Hugo's Geodude managed to grab his right ankle and toss him into the nearby wall.  
  
"Nice shot, Geodude!"  
  
"Owwwwwww…" was Machop's first comment from his position on the wall. His second was in the form of transforming into an impossibly fast blur which took to the air, leaping over Geodude, and flipping it into the other wall, which cracked.  
  
"I'm guessing your Machop's very well trained. Return! Go! Bellsprout!"  
  
A buff looking Bellspout appeared and took an Aikido stance. Machop, however, was having trouble standing up, wincing as he avoided putting weight on his right leg.  
  
"Machop! You'd better come back. Return!" And I lifted his pokeball, recalling him. "Go! Dratini!"  
  
"WHAT!?! YOU CAUGHT A DRATINI!?!"  
  
"Actually, I joined him," said Dratini.  
  
"Huh?" said a confused Hugo.  
  
I explained, "Dratini kinda' followed me. Now! Fire Blast that Plant!"  
  
"Bellsprout! Try the Elemental Counter!"  
  
My snake dragon released a jet of white-hot fire that streaked at the plant, who began to glow and set up an array of Reflect screens. The counter may have worked on another pokemon, but I had trained Dratini to focus his attacks to do more damage, so the Reflect screens lasted only a few moments under the heat. Hugo barely had time to recall Bellsprout before it was toasted!  
  
"Dratini! Dissipate!"  
  
Dratini turned off the flames and extinguished the attack with a high pressure Bubblebeam before they could reach the other side. Hugo smiled.  
  
"I am glad to have lost to such an impressive trainer. I look forward to a rematch."  
  
"As do I. If you work a bit more on those techniques, your pokemon'll be awesome!"  
  
I walked over to him and shook his hand.  
  
"It's been nice meeting you, but I have a feeling we'll meet again."  
  
"I hope so. You'll be leaving now?"  
  
"Yeah. I'll use my Rain Shield till I reach the edge of the storm. Abra and I won't feel a drop!"  
  
We waved goodbye to Hugo, Bruce, Harry, and Greg, calling for them to say bye to Serena for me, before I headed outside, Abra sitting on my shoulder, having just 'ported my stuff to me…  
  
About a week later…  
  
"Yeah! We're finally here!"  
  
My cheer was echoed by my rather ragged Pokepals as we entered through the wooden gate. The journey from Pokemon Tech was uneventful, the only building I saw had been the wild pokemon gym of A.J. Charleston, but not only was he out of my league(A.J. having only lost to a handful of people in several years, those included Ash Ketchum and his former travelling partners), he was also out on a training journey. After we had extinguished a large part of our elation, we headed to the 'center to rejuvenate, but not to sign-in. I had been investing several of our last paychecks via the internet, and my unexplainable hunches had paid off. We now had enough money to supply us for several months and still leave a good bit for my mom and dad and a few extras for my pokemon. After I had Joy rejuvenate my pokemon, we headed west toward Diglett Tunnel to catch new pokemon, but we were stopped by a rather large Snorlax.  
  
"That thing has to be 3 times bigger than it should be."  
  
"You said it, Sean," noted Abra  
  
"Can you 'port around it, magician?" asked Machop.  
  
"Nope. I can't see what I need to in order to 'port, so it would be quicker to try to double-jump off that ton of lard onto the fence."  
  
"Good point. Geodude and I can float over carrying Dratini since he can't jump 12 ft. high,"  
  
"Yet. But I admit, this is beyond me, snakes aren't built to jump."  
  
"Okay, Flyers first. Then Machop and Abra. I'll go last."  
  
"Ready!" they chorused. Freedom and Geodude went first, straddling Dratini between. After they moved out of sight, being blocked by the bulk of the glutton, Machop and Abra, in that order, flipped onto the bulky pokemon, then used it as a trampoline to flip up onto the post of the surrounding fence, from which they jumped off to the other side.  
  
I readied myself, crouching to jump, then I did. However, I somehow flipped completely over the sleeping stomach and rolled to a stop in front of my pokemon, who were clapping.  
  
"Nice jump, Sean. I didn't think you could do that.," said Abra.  
  
"Neither did I," I admitted. "We'd better get at it, or it'll be dark before we see any pokemon."  
  
With that, we headed off into the field, prepared to fight, but little did we know that our actions had stirred the megaton pokemon into its hours long biological wake-up sequence(it's basically the way a snorlax's body alters slightly so that it can become active enough to move, some tones speed this sequence.)…  
  
Two hours later…  
  
My pokemon and I were lying on the ground, relaxing after the last few battles. We had fought a total of 12 trainers so far and had yet to find a new pokemon. We were relaxing and chatting about various events along our journey…  
  
"And then there was that time Sean—"  
  
Abra's narrative was interrupted by a loud…  
  
"SNORLAX!"  
  
We screamed in confusion as an explosion from a Hyper Beam striking nearby sent us to the ground. I looked up to the beast that was attacking us and destroying everything in sight. It was obviously the Snorlax that we had encountered earlier, but it was now awake. Glowing, red eyes surveyed the area as the pokemon paused in its destruction.  
  
"Everyone up!" I called as I leapt to standing, drawing my sword as my companions rose to fight. The Snorlax heard me and turned to face us.  
  
"So you are the one I was sent to kill…Hmph, what a waste of time," I was stunned to not only hear the Snorlax talk, but hear it talk with the voice of a human. I could only think of a single explanation, there was no logical explanation.  
  
"Sean! I think it's been possessed!" yelled Freedom, glowing as she used her psychic power.  
  
The giant chuckled, stomach rippling, "My, my. A bug with a brain. Yes, I have taken this body to attack you. It was very kind of you to wake it up for me."  
  
"Who are you!" I demanded.  
  
The Possessed Snorlax smiled, "Let's just say that I'm an adept-for-hire."  
  
We dodged as the possessed snorlax fired another volley of hyper beams.  
  
"Guys!" I called behind me. "We need to take him out! Try to use quick K.O.'s!"  
  
"Right!" they chorused in agreement before leaping at the massive Snorlax!  
  
They pounded to no avail as the snorlax picked them off one-by-one with hyper beams. I winced as each blow struck my friends. At last, Abra took the final hit, and fell.  
  
The snorlax faced me, smiling, "Now for you. Byebye!"  
  
The monster's mouth glowed as it charged for a very large Hyper Beam. I was very afraid as the blast shot toward me…and then light became dark.  
  
Abra  
  
"Sean!" I screamed as the attack sped toward him. The others were badly injured and could do more than watch in horror as the attack reached our best friend and trainer. Yet there was a flash of movement, like light reflecting off metal. Then the beam was deflected high into the sky!  
  
"W-what!?!" screamed the voice of the adept. Sean stood sword in the air, eyes a frightening blood red.  
  
"That was your last warning. There will be a reckoning," he said, and with that the snorlax screamed as if burning alive. Then Sean fell to the ground, unconscious.  
  
"Snor? Lax? Snorlax!" screamed the very confused ex-possessed Snorlax as if began to wheel about in some form of a Thrash attack.  
  
"Quickly! To me!" yelled a voice from the grass. We levered ourselves up and I 'ported us to the voice with the last of my strength. I rested on my knees, panting, as a Drowzee explained what he was going to do.  
  
"I can Hypnotize him, but I need help."  
  
"I'll hit him with Rainbow Powder and help you, but we'll be completely defenseless."  
  
"I'm no help. Sorry guys. That last 'port was it."  
  
"S'kay, magician. We'll handle the tub o' lard. Let's go!"  
  
I watched as everyone but myself, the drowzee, and Freedom began their assault. Their medley of attacks weakened the out of control pokemon enough for the wave of pollen and psychic energy to strike it. The snorlax stumbled, then fell with a thump, unconscious…  
  
The next morning…  
  
Sean  
  
"Unnnnnnnnnnnnn…" I groaned, regaining consciousness. The first thing I saw was the white ceiling, the second was a blurred mass of pokemon jumping on me.  
  
"Air!" I yelped as they squeezed the breath out of me. They broke off and sheepishly apologized.  
  
"Glad to see you awake," Said a voice I didn't recognize. I turned out to be a drowzee that sat on the end of the bed I was in.  
  
"Who?"  
  
"I am a drowzee."  
  
"I think he noticed that, Drow," said Abra.  
  
"Don't call me that!" he shouted back.  
  
Abra stuck his tongue out at Drowzee, who turned a vivid shade of red.  
  
"Whoah you two. Having a battle on top of Sean won't exactly help him recover," said Dratini.  
  
I chuckled at the antics of my friends and companions. For it seemed as if I had known them all my life, even Drowzee…strange.  
  
The next day…  
  
I rose and checked out of the trainer hospital early, then headed toward the local gym, only to find a small crowd of about twenty.  
  
"Hey! What's going on?" I called, echoed by Abra.  
  
Several people turned. One was Sarah Slate. She walked over to me.  
  
"Hey, Sean, right?"  
  
"Yeah. Nice to see you Sarah. So what's happening?"  
  
"Apparently, a disgruntled plant trainer has blocked off the area with a plant wall, and no one here has a pokemon that knows Cut. sigh. And this would have been my fourth badge," she noticed my katana and got an idea. "Hey! You can cut it down with that!"  
  
"Yeah! Good idea, let's do it, Sean!" said Abra by my side.  
  
"I can try, but I'm not guaranteeing anything," I said, doubting my sword's sharpness.  
  
"Come on, then!" she turned to the crowd. "Clear the way!"  
  
The crowd parted a bit to let me pass. In front of the crowd was a wall of thorns 10ft. tall.  
  
Abra whistled, "I'd hate to see the grass-type that did that."  
  
"I agree wholeheartedly," I turned to the crowd, "Could you back up?"  
  
They did, noticing the sword I carried. I drew my sword and brought it to ready. I leapt, and slashed three times before hitting the cut out triangle feet first. I plowed through the cut out, and rolled on the other side. A cheer went up behind me as Abra 'ported to my side, then 'ported us to the entrance, just ahead of the crowd, who began to run through the whole toward the gym.  
  
"Thanks Abra," I said, sheathing my sword. "I didn't want to have to race the crowd. Shall we go in?"  
  
"Allow me."  
  
Abra shoved open the massive gym doors. It was pitch black inside.  
  
"I, Sean of Silver Town, challenge the master of this gym!" I shouted into the gloom. A single spotlight turned on, illuminating a large, but still young, blond-haired man, wearing rather expensive sunglasses despite the dim lighting, the skylights being shuttered.  
  
"I, Private Surge, Jr. Accept!" he paused, "And how did you get past the thorn barrier?"  
  
I tapped my sword.  
  
"Ah. I assume there are more after you?"  
  
"Yep, you might want to close the doors."  
  
"Good idea."  
  
Doors swung shut behind me before the first of the crowd could reach the entrance. The shutters were retracted, letting the sunlight reveal an area between Surge and I.  
  
"3-on-3. No time limit. Begin!"  
  
I guess he doesn't care whether I've competed in any other leagues.  
  
"Go! Geodude!"  
  
I released my friend onto the large field of sand.  
  
"Go! Electrode!"  
  
The explosive pokemon was released.  
  
"Geodude! Seismic Pound!"  
  
"Roll away!"  
  
Geodude gripped his hands together and shot toward the bomb. She flipped at the last second to smash both his fists into the ground…where the bomb had been moments before. Geodude smashed her hands deep into the ground where the Electrode had been, and was caught in the blast of its Explosion Technique.  
  
"Geodude!" I shouted as I was forced back several steps by the blast. A light pierced the cloud of dust as Lt. Surge declared his victory…until a red-and-white blur shot from the cloud, barely missed him, and embedded itself deep into the wall behind, fainted.  
  
"WHAT THE!?!"  
  
The dust cloud was blown away by the Gym fans, only to reveal a Graveller the size of a Golem. It was a light metallic gold in color and had a half- foot long translucent diamond mark across its left eye.  
  
"Whoah. You evolved."  
  
Graveller smiled and nodded, "Yeah."  
  
"Go! Magneton!" said Surge, now nervous at the strangely colored and huge rock/ground type in the arena.  
  
"Graveller! Ground Storm!"  
  
"Got it!"  
  
And Graveller clapped her hands in front of her and began to glow.  
  
"Magneton! Stop it with Thunder Wave!"  
  
But it was to late, for a tornado of sand and cement ripped from the arena floor was now spinning around her. The tri-magnet pokemon was sucked into the winds and whirled about, soon flung into the wall next to the indent Electrode had made.  
  
"Return! Go! Raichu!"  
  
The electric mouse emerged as Graveller's attack died down. Since my friend was exhausted, I returned her with congratulations, and I sent out Drowzee.  
  
"Ha! Easy win! Raichu, Mega Bash!"  
  
The raichu released a flurry of Mega Punches and Kicks, all of which connected with my unfortunate pal. I ached in something more than sympathy.  
  
"Return!" I called, but he dodged.  
  
"No! I WILL NOT LOSE!!!" And a white light enveloped him.  
  
"What!?! Again!"  
  
My newest friend grew and changed. The light died down to reveal a Hypno of midnight black, a crimson red cape undulating around him in a non-existent wind. A Black Pendulum worked in arcane gold symbols hung from his outstretched right arm, and he stood a full foot taller than the standard Hypno.  
  
"Wow! You evolved!"  
  
"Yes. The battle?"  
  
I smirked, "Nightmare Crusher?"  
  
Hypno mimicked my smirk as a dark aura surrounded him, preparing to use an attack we discussed on our way to the gym.  
  
"Raichu! Thunder!"  
  
The Electrice type charged a massive attack, but it failed when a dark beam of shadow sent the mouse powerfully flying into the wall, where the charged electricity discharged, finishing off the mouse, who slid from the wall, out cold. Surge quickly returned his pokemon. He walked over to me and took my hand and shook it.  
  
"Amazing, simply amazing. Here's your badge, wear it well."  
  
He turned to Hypno.  
  
"And may I never meet another trainer with a pokemon like that."  
  
Hypno smiled and 'ported over as Surge headed to the Revitalizer in the back. Hypno looked down at Abra.  
  
"You look smaller, runt."  
  
Abra kicks him in the shin. Hypno growls at him. I sigh, draw my sword, and place it between the sparks coming from their eyes.  
  
"Cut it out, guys. Hypno, care for a new name."  
  
He shrugged.  
  
"How about Myphisto?"  
  
"Sounds mysterious, I like it!"  
  
I smiled at my newest friend and returned him. I sheathed my sword and Abra 'ported onto my shoulder. I was about to head out when Surge called to me, I turned to him as he jogged over and handed me an envelope.  
  
"Those are tickets for the S.S. Anne II. They leave today for Lavender, but I can't go. Take them as payment for getting rid of that thorn barrier," he said.  
  
"Thanks!"  
  
"Yeah, thanks!" echoed Abra.  
  
We waved goodbye again, and headed out the side door, as to avoid the crowd around front…  
  
Soon…  
  
"That's the ship!?!"  
  
"Yeah, huge ain't it?" I said to my amazed friend.  
  
The S.S. Anne II was taller than most of Vermillion City's buildings and had 6 smoke stacks. It was black, white, and a bit of red. I walked up to the gangplank, and was stopped by a surly sailor.  
  
"No rabble allowed."  
  
I frowned and took out my ticket. The man was very surprised and demanded to know where I got the ticket from.  
  
"Private Surge gave it to me for cutting down the thorn barrier around his gym."  
  
"You and what army?"  
  
I tapped my sword, "No army needed."  
  
The sailor frowned at the weapon, but shrugged and handed me back my ticket.  
  
"Don't let me catch you using that on someone. You're very lucky, though. Those tickets are for first-class. Now get going, there's a huge line," he shooed us up the gangplank. Abra and I had sweatdrops, there was no line. As we boarded, Abra and I saw a bunch of trainers milling about the deck, some with pokemon, some without. Abra and I headed toward our room, which we finally found after about 10 minutes of searching. Once there, I dropped my ticket into the door slot, and got a card key in exchange. I opened the room.  
  
"A bit big, isn't it, Sean?"  
  
The room was a very large suite. It had one bedroom in back, a kitchen to my left, and a living room-like area with a large entertainment system. I tossed by pack into the living- room-area. Then I left, knowing that I would have several days there, while most of the trainer convention was going to be closed up just as the ship departed. We soon reached a large gymnasium/dining room. Arrayed around the floor were dozens of stalls and battling arenas.  
  
"Wow."  
  
"Yeah, wow. Shall we get started?"  
  
I saw a glint in my eyes, mirrored by Abra's own. It had been a long time since we had been able to buy anything. We were running low on books to read. We dove into the fray.  
  
A few hours later I had bought a Blackbelt for Machop, a set of tigers-eye meditation crystals for Abra and I, a punching bag for Graveller, an elemental proofer for Myphisto's cape, a brush to help clean off Freedom's extra powder from her wings, a small backpack for Abra,(I was tired of being stuck carrying all the equipment), a selection of potions, and several books to read. After we bought our stuff, we excitedly ran off to our cabin, but we ran into some trouble.  
  
"Hey! You!" yelled a man in a tuxedo with a cape and cane.  
  
We stopped.  
  
"Yeah?" I asked.  
  
"Do you wish to battle one-on-one?"  
  
"Sure. You up to it, Abra?"  
  
Abra pouted, "I'd rather read," he sighed. "But why not!"  
  
We jogged over to the small circular arena the man stood in.  
  
"Go! Ratication!" he called, releasing a shiny Raticate.  
  
"Whoah! Cool! A shiny mutation!" Abra and I exclaimed.  
  
"Yes, I'm surprised you know of it. Few common trainers do,"  
  
"And here I thought Sean's as common as they come,"  
  
I grit my teeth, "Just go,"  
  
He smirked, 'porting to attack Ratication with a rapid series of punches. Ratication was quickly overwhelmed by the combination of burns, freezes and paralyzation.  
  
"Amazing! Return, Ratication! I've never seen such ferocity in an Abra! How do you do it?"  
  
I blushed, embarrased, "I guess I'm just a good trainer."  
  
Abra kicked my shin, "Don't get so big-headed!"  
  
I rubbed my throbbing shin and laughed. The man in the tux smiled at us, bowed, and disappeared into the crowd. Later, we moved up to the top deck and together we ate dinner, served by a combination of human and Water-type waiters as we played a very long game of Magic. I had called my mother to have her send my entire collection over, and my pokemon had created their own decks, all very powerful. Mephisto was borrowing my Blue-Red TimeStar deck. The dinner was amazing: there were two platters of very fresh sushi(no wasabi) and sashimi, a box of tempura, and steak. While we were all stuffing ourselves and playing, the S.S. Anne II left port and sailed into the ocean proper. The next several days were filled with relaxation, good food, and good battles. However, on the 5th night out there was trouble…  
  
My pokemon and I were lounging on the deck when "it" appeared. "It" was a 100m long, metal Gyrados that fired a high power laser from its "mouth" at the SS Anne II's propellers. I quickly grabbed my pokeballs and recalled my pokemon before the engines blew. The explosion that followed knocked me off my feet and nearly over the rail, where, looking down, I saw dozens of…well, either they were very proper Gyrados or they were gyrados-shaped subs. The latter was proved right as they launched grappling ropes closely followed by a set of Rocket agents in mixed black and white uniforms. I reacted on instinct, leaping to the lower deck and smashing away the few pokeballs launched by the Rockets before they could open as I drew my sword. With a mighty swipe, I caused the equivalent of Razor Wind, splitting nearly all the ropes on this side of the ocean liner. Soon recovering from my shock, I released all my pokemon, calling for everyone else to do the same. Some 'balls were sucked up by the vacuum-packs of the Rockets, but most were released. I ordered my friends to help organize the pokemon as I shoved my way through the panicked masses, knocking sense into all I met and unconsciousness into the Rockets, splitting open their packs and emptying the 'balls before tossing them overboard. Thankfully, some other trainers followed my example and slowly we repelled the Rockets. We battled for several minutes before I noticed a dark form rapidly approaching. My computer began to beep loudly at my hip. I ko'ed the Rocket charging me and opened my comp. I was stunned to see…  
  
"Kara!"  
  
The ancient Alakazam smirked, "You were expecting the Grim Reaper?"  
  
I slashed away a Thief Ball from my pokemon, "You could say that. What are you doing here?"  
  
"I though you'd might like to test drive your first MS, Ninja. I'll park her by you, get ready!"  
  
I snapped my computer shut and stored it, "Abra! To me! Everyone else, use your own discretion and don't get stolen!"  
  
Abra 'ported to my side as the sleek mat black form of Ninja glided to a stop atop the Gyrados subs in front and below me. The chest slid open, both vertically and horizontally to reveal the cockpit. The after flash of Teleport still visible. I leaped inside as Abra 'ported to the little seat I had added into the designs during my journey to Cerulean to handle the special Defense Stars. My hands flash along the large keyboards at my sides and the Ninja powers up. I activated the boot jets and sunk most of the subs(which were all thankfully vacant). I launched the 6 stars and delegated their control to Abra as I drew the twin energy edged swords from Ninja's back. I shot upwards and fell, spinning, upon the fleet of Magikarp mini-subs that, according to my sensors, were projecting a jamming signal(odd since my computer had to have managed to override it to get Kara's message). They were rapidly disabled by the resulting vortex that stripped the paddles off their propellers. I rapidly rose under the giant Gyrados, only to have to dodge a volley of torpedoes and break off. As I broke the surface, a point blank laser blast nearly killed me, but Abra managed to get the Stars to intercept and diffuse it. I growled at the mechanical beast.  
  
"Sean! Incoming!" shouted Abra.  
  
I flicked a glance at the LIDAR, which revealed 12 "Alpha"(As Bill had nicknamed them) MD's being launched from the tail of the large Mecha.  
  
"Abra! Switch out the star warheads for EMP type!"  
  
"Already on it!"  
  
I dove, avoiding the torpedo/missile barrage while sheathing my swords.  
  
"Done!"  
  
"EAT THIS!"  
  
I fired the entire clip of EMP stars into the pack of MDs from their wrist lauchers. Each EMP star contained a small, immensely powerful chemical warhead at the core of a tightly wound superconducting coil charged just before launch. They tore through the first layer of armor and detonated within the delicate electronics of the MDs. I laughed, high on adrenaline, at their decimation.  
  
"Is that all you've got!"  
  
"No, that is," said a calm Abra in a patronizing tone.  
  
I turned my head to see MechaGyrados about to fry the SS Anne II with another laser blast. I grunted, wrenching the Ninja about and accelerating it to full speed. I dove between the ship and monster, throwing a sword with all my suit's might. Time seemed to slow as the sword approached it's target, the laser cannon mounted in the mouth of MechaGyrados. It just fired a nanosecond long burst that scored a rift in my shoulder armor before impact. The focused energy edge tore through the armor, cleaving the entire head in two!  
  
"Ha! Gotcha!"  
  
Then it exploded…  
  
I woke up and looked around, I was back in my room on the ship, on my bed.  
  
"Took you long enough  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, if I did I'd be writing the 4th season, not fanfiction.  
  
This is about 1/3 of what the fic is planned to be. I'll try to bring it up to 1/2 by the end of the year. Non-constructive flames will be ineffective due to psychic abilities. 


End file.
